Flaticon Review: The Tool I Use to Make Professional Graphics as a Virtual Assistant

Flaticon Review: The Tool I Use to Make Professional Graphics as a Virtual Assistant

I’ve been a Virtual Assistant since 2011 and I’ve created everything from PowerPoints and ebooks to Pinterest pins and client templates. I use Canva regularly, but sometimes I need to build content outside of Canva because it has limits that don’t always work for client projects, especially when a client wants fully editable files in Word or PowerPoint that they can update themselves. Canva’s icons also can’t usually be downloaded or used anywhere else unless they’re part of a finished design created in Canva.

That’s where this Flaticon review begins, because Flaticon isn’t a replacement for Canva, it’s another tool when you need flexible icons that work across different software. It gives me the freedom to create clean, consistent graphics that clients can easily edit without coming back to me for every small change.

If you want icons you can use in PowerPoint, Word or any software your clients prefer, Flaticon gives you that flexibility.

Try Flaticon

What Is Flaticon and Why Do I Use It?

Flaticon is a massive icon library owned by Freepik, with over 18 million icons and stickers. Everything is created by independent designers, so the styles are modern and varied. You can download icons as PNG, SVG, EPS or PSD files and use them anywhere like PowerPoint, Word, Canva, websites and PDFs.

With the paid plan, you also get a commercial licence, which means you don’t need to add attribution. Attribution means giving credit to the designer by writing something like “Icon by Freepik” under your design. It’s required when you use free icons, but with the paid plan you don’t have to do that, which makes client work easier and looks more professional.

Flaticon isn’t there to replace Canva, but it is a helpful extra tool that speeds up certain design jobs and gives clients more control over their own files.

Flaticon tutorial: How I Used Flaticon to Create a Pinterest Pin

To show you how simple it is, I used Flaticon to create a Pinterest pin for a previous blog post: 11 Daily Habits to Improve Life and Feel Better Working From Home. I designed the base in PowerPoint and added the icons from Flaticon.

Below is the base of the pin before adding any icons created in PowerPoint.

When you’re searching for icons, you can type in whatever you need, in this case, I searched for “moon”. Instantly I had hundreds of options and I added a couple into my collection to compare them later.

Flaticon usually gives you pages and pages of options, so you’ll always find something that works for your Pinterest pin design or client project.

Using Filters to Keep Your Design Consistent

The filter options are incredibly handy. When you’re making graphics, especially for clients, keeping the style consistent makes the whole design look more professional. You can filter by colour, black, gradient, outline, lineal colour, or hand-drawn. See the image below to see the filters.

For this pin, I chose colour and lineal colour because these icons have a coloured fill with a darker outline, which stands out nicely on Pinterest. Take a look at the example icons below using this filter.

Building Your Icon Collection

Now I found icons I liked, I added them to my collection as mentioned above. This lets you see everything together before downloading and it’s much easier to remove duplicates or styles that don’t match.

Then I trimmed my collection down to the final icons I wanted to use in my design. They all have a similar style and it’s easy to see how they can work together in my design.

Downloading Icons as PNG Files

Flaticon gives you several file types, but for this design I chose PNG because it works well in PowerPoint.

You also get to choose the pixel size and I picked 128px because it’s the recommended size for blog graphics. It looks sharp, loads quickly, stays clear inside PowerPoint and doesn’t go blurry when you resize it.

Unzipping and Organising the Files

Once downloaded, the icons arrive as a zipped folder in your downloads folder. See image below.

I move this into my blog folder to keep things tidy. File organisation saves you stress later when a client asks for changes.

There’s also a licence folder inside the download. Always keep this in your project folder. It proves you’re allowed to use the icons commercially. In the image below you can see two folders. The icons are in the png. folder and the licences are in the licence folder.

Pro tip: As a Virtual Assistant make sure you have a good file hierarchy for your files. This is so you can find your own work but more importantly, your clients work too. If you’re unsure how to organise your files, watch this video called: The Best Way to Organize Your Files and Folders. The presenter does mention her ebook, I haven’t used it myself. I just thought her explanation of file hierarchy was helpful, so I wanted to share the video with you.

Adding Icons Into PowerPoint

Once everything is unzipped, I go back to PowerPoint and insert the icons. It’s literally:

Insert → Pictures → Choose your icons → Resize → Position them

In the image below you can see the base of the pin and the large icons which need to be resized and positioned onto the pin graphic.

The Final Pinterest Pin

And here’s the finished pin, created in PowerPoint using icons downloaded from Flaticon. This pin is now live on Pinterest and links to 11 Daily Habits to improve Life and Feel Better Working from Home.

Is Flaticon Worth Paying For?

For me, yes. I pay for Flaticon because it gives me commercial licences, consistent icon styles and full flexibility outside Canva. When I’m building client templates, PowerPoints or training materials, it saves me a lot of time and helps the final design look more professional.

If you’re creating client documents or want your graphics to look polished, Flaticon is definitely worth exploring. You can take a look at Flaticon below.

Try Flaticon

Flaticon costs £93.79 per year and I’ve found it good value because:

• Clients can edit their own files in PowerPoint or Word

• The icon styles are modern, clean and consistent

• You can colour-match icons to your brand

• It works across any niche or design project

• It speeds up your whole design process

• It helps you create better PDFs, workbooks and lead magnets

I don’t use it every single day, but when I need clean, matching icons, especially for ebooks, worksheets, training documents or presentations it genuinely saves time and it helps your work look professional without you having to spend hours designing graphics from scratch.

FAQs

Q: What is Flaticon used for?

Flaticon is an online icon library with over 18 million icons and stickers. You can download them as PNG or SVG files and use them in PowerPoint, Word, Canva, PDFs, websites or social media graphics. I also use them for ebooks, training material, workbooks and PowerPoint presentations. It’s great for creating clean, consistent visuals, especially when clients want editable files they can update themselves.

Q: Is Flaticon better than Canva?

Flaticon isn’t a replacement for Canva, it’s an extra tool. Canva is great for designing, but many of its icons can’t be downloaded or used outside Canva. Flaticon is useful when clients want files they can edit themselves outside of Canva.

Q: Flaticon Review: Is Flaticon worth paying for as a Virtual Assistant?

For me, yes. I pay £93.79 per year and it saves me time on design tasks. I use it alongside my other virtual assistant tools, especially when I’m creating ebooks, worksheets, presentations and client templates. Having a full library of consistent icons ready to download keeps my work looking clean and professional. I don’t have to search for free images or worry about licences, which makes my day run smoother. If you create visuals, Flaticon can make your workflow easier.

Q: How do I use Flaticon in my client work?

I use Flaticon to add simple, tidy icons to the materials I create for clients. This includes PowerPoint presentations, Word templates, workbooks, training materials, PDFs and social media graphics. It’s one of the best tools for virtual assistants when you need clean, consistent designs quickly. Icons help me break up text, organise content and make everything look more polished. I also like that I can change colours to match a client’s brand, which is helpful when creating graphics and documents. For me, Flaticon is a practical part of my virtual assistant tools because it saves time and improves the final result.

Now read: Top 10 Virtual Assistant Tools (Free + Paid)

And read: Best Free Images and Tools For Virtual Assistant Content