For (much) more information on this proposal, please see http://groups.drupal.org/node/9836 and its relevant sub-threads.

There is currently a lot of effort going on in the Icons for Drupal group to create a set of beautiful icons for Drupal. However, we want to keep the flexible power of Drupal and allow users to implement whatever types of icons they want, quickly and easily.

Icon module will allow Drupal to use "icon packs" in its themes. Detailed information is available from:

http://groups.drupal.org/node/9830 - Requirements (what it needs to accomplish)
http://groups.drupal.org/node/9833 - Specifications (how it should work)
http://groups.drupal.org/node/9835 - Design (how it should be implemented)