Important things to note when composing Icons:
 * Uniqueness of shape matters most when dealing with application and toolbar icons
 * using inkscape, ungrouping (CTRL+U), pressing up then down arrowkeys then grouping (CTRL+G)  is the easiest way to fix the common issue of icons appearing differently in librsvg(nautilus eog etc ) than they do in inkscape  keep WYSIWYG . this bug happens sometimes when creating a new document with existing assets from other documents and moving them around.
 * application icons should not contain more than two visual elements. If the assets provided dont make a decent icon with two elements, talk to other members of the ArtTeam for ideas.