#IXD104-Week 2- Vic Bell

Vic Bell is an illustrator, iconographer and brand designer, based in Durham, United Kingdom.

She is a senior illustrator for Gitlab and has worked on many projects for many companies such as Uber and Burberry. I was very interested in her designs as they are very different for each project she is working on, showing that she is a very versatile illustrator and is very good at following any brief that comes her way.

UBER

Bell’s icons were very eye-catching to me due to the sheer simplicity of them. I feel it is very important that icons can describe themselves and are therefore very clear as to what they are. overly complicated icons are more hassle than they’re worth in my opinion as icons should be very clear as to what they are so that no labelling is needed. Bell does this brilliantly as they are very clear as to what to what they are and fits the brand well as Uber is a service that is claiming to be faster and easier than taxis.

WITH BEAR

To show her versatility, “Bear” is another project that Vic Bell illustrates. Bear is a focused, flexible notes app which has quick organisation, editing tools, and export options to help you write quickly and share anywhere and preserve your privacy with encryption.

The illustrations for this app are a very different style from the the illustrations for her Uber project, yet they still carry the familiar simplistic style using very fine lines for her designs.

Containing colour, these illustrations feel a lot more free and fun. the redesign of the bear in 2019 (first picture) compared to the original 2015 design (second picture) shows the bear with a lot more personality that the app owners wanted to reflect in their app. I much prefer the redesign illustrations as although they are more complicated due to the addition of colour and backgrounds, the simplistic design is still clearly visible; allowing other brands to see what Bell’s illustration style is and know that she is able to adapt it to fit their brief if they wish her to which shows how much of a talented artist she is.

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