Icons and symbols represent a whole slew of different “things” on a website and often are associated with a word or phrase.

What icon would you use to represent “Graduation”? Probably a graduation cap.

What about an icon for “Strength”? A muscly arm works!

…What about respect? Wow. That’s a tricky one!

It’s unfortunate, but for many designers out there, they will spend a whole lot of time trying to think of icon ideas for abstract words and will often have to swap things out regularly. If the icon isn’t obvious to you, then it won’t be obvious to the client.

Thankfully, websites like The Noun Project exist. You type in a word, and boom, it spits out any available icon it has associated with that word.

There’s a lot missing on there. My example — “respect” — isn’t even on there. But it can at least help.

It does cost money. So either pay for a membership, OR use it to gather ideas (and then create your own icons).