For this project, we have to design an icon for a household object, so I started by brainstorming different possible objects I could choose and what ones would make effective icons. After this I chose my top four items and created quick sketches from my images to see which would best suit recreated as an icon and what they all had in common so I could work out what features would make it universally recognisable. Once I picked a toaster, I photographed it and I drew up some initial sketches and created small paper pieces.

After carrying out my initial research into my object, I wanted to create more sketches just to make sure I was familiar with all the important elements that make a toaster recognisable. By doing this, I was also able to see how much detail is needed. To do this I created some icon ideas using only geometric shapes and created stencils with black paper, which really forced me to keep detail to a minimum as it all had to be connected.

Below are some of the icon ideas I came up with after carrying out my research and sketches. Some are more successful than others, but I feel that they all resemble a toaster in some way, whether it be a component of it or how it works.

Research:

Susan Kare

(born 1954)

Susan Kare, from Ithaca, New York. She is one of the most well-known graphic designers in America. In the 1980s, Kare developed many elements for the Apple Macintosh interface. She also worked with Steve Jobs once he left Apple, as a creative director for his company NeXT. Kare became involved with Apple through an old school friend and became a member of the original Apple Macintosh design team. Her job was to design the user interface graphics and fonts and was soon promoted to Creative Designer. While the models have been modified and revised, Kare’s original ground-breaking designs are still visible in numerous computer graphic tools. Some examples of these include the Lasso and Paint Bucket which are still used in software like Adobe Photoshop and Paint 3D. The most notable typeface which Kare worked on is the Chicago typeface, applied in the Classic Mac OS and the first four generations of the Apple iPod interface.

While working as a designer in NeXT, she worked more specifically with icons in the development of Windows 3.0 with Microsoft. Some of the icons she designed still remained the same until the update to Windows XP, like Notepad and Control Panel icons. The Museum of Modern Art store in New York utilise her designs in their stationery and notebooks and in 2007 Facebook requested to use her ‘Gift’ icon. Kare stated that good icons should be more efficient similar to road signs compared to illustrations which can be a common misconception. There shouldn’t be too much detail to prevent the viewer from getting confused and therefore easy to comprehend.

When creating designs for my own icons, using her thoughts of keeping detail and colouring to a minimum, I feel I will be able to come up with a number of possible icon designs for my household object.

Wim Crouwel

(21 Nov 1928-19 Sep 2019)

Wim Crouwel, from Groningen, Netherlands, was a celebrated Dutch graphic designer and typographer. During his lifetime, he designed some iconic typefaces including New Alphabet and Gridnik. As well as designing, Crouwel also taught at a number of universities and institutes. After completing his military service, he began a professional career in abstract art. During the 1950s, he majored in typography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, which was where he found out about the wide range of possibilities that graphic design can offer. Soon after, he quit painting and began to work freelance after being inspired by Swiss design.

While in Switzerland, Crouwel met other designers and observed the emergence of International style. Due to his support of the new style, he was appointed the first general secretary of the International Council of Graphic Design Associations. In the same year,  Crouwel co-founded Total Design with Benno Wissing, Friso Kramer, and Paul and Dick Schwarz. The studio was the first multidisciplinary design studio in the Netherlands, and they aimed to alter the fundamentals of the Dutch design landscape. Their work includes multiple designing jobs such as postage stamps for the Dutch Post Office and a body of work for the Stedelijk Museum. One area of Crouwel’s work he is recognized for is his innovative approach to design thinking.

 

Armin Hoffman

(29 June 1920-18 December 2020)

Armin Hoffman was a Swiss graphic designer and teacher. He had a huge influence on generations of designers and his students considered him as one of the most inspiring graphic design teachers. Hoffman grew up in Winterthur, in Switzerland, and attended the School of Arts in Zurich. In 1965, after opening and design studio and teaching for four decades, he published the ‘Graphic Design Manual’. Decades later and the revised version is still published.

His designs have typographic and photographic clarity, which can be seen in his theatrical posters which capture both the experience of watching and listening, where he used unique eye and ear grainy imagery. Hoffman also played an instrumental role in the development of the Swiss Style within graphic design.

A particular aspect of Hoffman’s work that appeals to me is his limited colour palette and his use of imagery. While the images are almost like prints with the majority of it being in the shadows, they still can portray what his designs are representing. He relies heavily on black and white, which I feel creates sleek and professional designs, but what makes his work unique is how he combines the sharp typography with the grainy images, while still keeping an effective composition. In terms of my own icons, keeping my colour scheme to simple black and white, I feel will help me represent the household object I chose,