Building and Organizing Icon Packs

Whether you're creating your own icon pack or managing third-party icons, organization is key to maintaining a usable, scalable collection. This guide covers best practices for structuring icon packs that work well in production environments.

Planning Your Icon Pack Structure

Before creating or reorganizing icons, establish a clear structure that will scale with your collection. Consider these organizational principles:

Category-based organization groups icons by their purpose or subject matter. Common categories include navigation, actions, objects, communication, media, and status indicators. This approach works well when designers browse for icons conceptually.

Alphabetical organization is simpler to maintain and search programmatically. When combined with good naming conventions, it allows quick lookup without requiring category knowledge.

Hybrid approaches often work best. Use categories at the top level with alphabetical sorting within each category. Include a flat alphabetical index for quick reference.

File and Folder Structure

A well-organized folder structure makes icon management much easier. Here's a recommended layout:

icons/
├── svg/
│   ├── outlined/
│   │   ├── actions/
│   │   ├── navigation/
│   │   └── objects/
│   └── filled/
│       ├── actions/
│       ├── navigation/
│       └── objects/
├── png/
│   ├── 16/
│   ├── 24/
│   ├── 32/
│   ├── 48/
│   └── 64/
├── ico/
└── sprites/
    ├── sprite-outlined.svg
    └── sprite-filled.svg

This structure separates formats and sizes while maintaining consistent organization across variants. The sprite folder contains pre-built SVG sprites for efficient web delivery.

Naming Conventions

Consistent naming is crucial for discoverability and automation. Follow these guidelines:

Use lowercase with hyphens as separators: arrow-left.svg
Be descriptive but concise: user-circle.svg not u.svg
Include variant suffixes when needed: heart-filled.svg, heart-outlined.svg
Avoid special characters and spaces in filenames
Use consistent terminology: decide between "delete/trash/remove" and stick with it

Document your naming conventions in a style guide. This ensures consistency as your pack grows and new contributors join the project.

Metadata and Documentation

Good documentation transforms a folder of files into a usable design resource. Include:

README file with pack overview, installation, and usage instructions
Changelog tracking additions, removals, and modifications
Icon index listing all icons with names, categories, and tags
License file clearly stating usage rights
Preview sheet showing all icons at a glance

Consider maintaining a JSON or CSV manifest that tools can parse. This enables automated documentation generation and integration with design tools.

Version Control Best Practices

Icons are code assets and benefit from version control just like source code. When using Git:

Commit new icons with descriptive messages including the icon names
Use semantic versioning for releases (major.minor.patch)
Tag releases so users can pin to specific versions
Consider using Git LFS for large binary files like PNGs at high resolution

Increment versions appropriately: patch for fixes, minor for additions, major for breaking changes like renamed or removed icons.

Quality Control Checklist

Before adding icons to a production pack, verify each one meets your standards:

Consistent canvas size and alignment to the pixel grid
Proper stroke width matching other icons in the set
Optimized SVG code without unnecessary elements
Correct file naming following conventions
All required sizes and formats generated
Visual weight balanced with similar icons
Metadata and tags added to the manifest

Automated linting can catch many issues. Tools exist to validate SVG structure, check dimensions, and enforce naming patterns.

Distribution Formats

Different users need icons in different formats. Consider providing:

Individual SVGs for maximum flexibility
SVG sprites for efficient web delivery
PNG exports at standard sizes for legacy support
ICO files for Windows applications and favicons
PDF for print designers
Design tool formats (Figma, Sketch components)
Web font if there's demand (though SVG sprites are preferred)

Automate format generation with build scripts. This ensures consistency and makes updates painless.

Maintaining Pack Consistency

As icon packs grow, maintaining visual consistency becomes challenging. Establish clear guidelines:

Define a base grid (typically 24×24 with 2px padding)
Specify stroke weights (commonly 1.5px or 2px)
Set corner radius rules
Document cap and join styles
Create template files showing the grid and safe zones

Regular audits help catch drift. Periodically review the entire pack to identify icons that have strayed from the established style.

Integration with Design Tools

Modern icon packs should integrate with popular design tools. Consider providing:

Figma component library with organized frames and variants
Sketch symbols with proper naming for easy override
Adobe XD asset library
Icon font with ligature support for easy typing

Component-based formats allow designers to swap icons easily while maintaining consistent sizing and alignment across their work.