Designers
Create with the Noun Project
Designers use the symbols found on this website for their personal and professional work. They can also submit their own symbols to the collection.
Why should you Contribute to The Noun Project?
Uploading symbols to The Noun Project is the easiest way to expand our world’s visual language. Why is that important? Because visual communication is incredibly powerful. Symbols have the ability to transcend cultural and language barriers and deliver concise information effortlessly and instantaneously. For the first time, this image-based system of communication is being combined with technology to create a social language that unites the world.
As a contributor, you will have your own Noun Profile to showcase your work and promote your design talents. And you can also earn some cash with your symbols!
How can I make money with my symbols?
You can give people an option to pay a small fee for your symbol instead of following Attribution Requirements. This option is available for any symbol you upload under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. You can set your preference when you submit your symbol, or at any time by visiting your user account.
How much can I make?
Designers get 50% of profits every time someone pays a fee to use their symbol without attribution. Currently the fee to waive the attribution requirement is $1.99 (transaction costs are subtracted from profits).
How do I get paid?
We will deposit money to your linked PayPal account within 10 business days after the end of every month, as long as you have a balance equal to or greater than $10. You will receive an email notification as soon as you have funds available.
Why offer an Alternative to Attribution?
We’ve heard from a lot of users who wanted a way to use symbols without having to attribute them. Sometimes attribution can be a hassle or even impossible, in particular when creating things like posters, advertising or applications. We wanted to provide a way for users to compensate designers when attribution is not possible, while giving more people access to the symbols no matter where they’re used.
If I activate my symbols, can people still download them for free?
Yes. By enabling this option for your symbols, you give users the choice of either using your CC BY symbol for free (while following Attribution Requirements), or paying a fee for the right to not attribute.
What if I don’t want to give people the option to not attribute my symbol?
No worries - you don’t have to. Unless you activate this option, it will still have the original license you selected during the Submission process. Remember that you own the rights to the work, and only you can change the license status of your symbols.
What License can I use for my symbols?
You can choose one of the following Creative Commons licenses to apply to your symbol during the upload process:
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) allows you to let others download, use, copy, share, modify, and build upon your symbol, as long as they follow the proper attribution information you provide. You may choose to give users the option to waive the attribution requirement and pay you a fee instead.
CC0 - No Rights Reserved is a public domain dedication tool which allows the designer or owner of a symbol to declare the work free of copyright. Placing a symbol into the public domain is not revocable, so make sure to read about CC0 first.
Public Domain Mark is a tool that lets you to identify a symbol that is already in the public domain and is therefore free of known copyright restrictions. An example of this would be an original work of the US Government (for example the DOT transportation suite), or symbols that have already been released into the public domain (such as the Iconathon suite).
Design Guidelines
To make sure the collection remains of the highest design quality, all submissions go through a curation process before they’re approved for the collection. We’ve created a set of Design Guidelines to help maintain consistency in style and quality. Once our team reviews the symbol you submitted (usually within 24 hours), we’ll send you an email.
Technical Guidelines
Symbols should be all fill without any strokes. Overlapping shapes should be merged together and separate shapes should be ungrouped. The design must use only black and not apply gradients. The largest dimension (width or length) must be 100px, and the file must be formatted as a Scalable Vector Graphic (.SVG).
User Accounts
Creating a User Account is easy, and it’s free. User Accounts enable you to upload and manage your symbols, as well as keep track of your favorites. If you’re a volunteer translator, this is also where you can find how many nouns are up for translation in your language.
Noun Profiles
Once your symbols are uploaded to the collection, you will also have your own Noun Profile where you can showcase and share all of your designs.
We look forward to seeing your designs and growing the collection.
Have questions? Shoot us a line at submissions@thenounproject.com