Research/Inspiration
- objectified by Gary Hoffman – movie
- Beautiful world, where are you? – movie
- Paul Elliman
- Olly Moss (Illustrator)
- Firewatch
- Inga Hampton
- Heyley Gregg
- Lucy Cook
- Dribble – good source for inspiration
- Cue Calendar
- Mikael Gustafsson
- Harry Nesbitt
- Aaron McAllister
- Kyle Tezak
- Olympics icons throughout the years.
- Susan Kare
- The noun project
- Adian Frutiger
- Zip
- Vic Bell
- Tim Van Damme
- Sebastian De With
- Justas Galaburda
- Matt Yow
- Adam Whitcroft
Icon design
Understand how they are created, they are a big part of design systems – even if we don’t design them ourselves. It is about trying to capture the essence of an object in its simplest shape.
Try to restrict yourself to a tight grid – eg 10×10 to push your creativity. Only use circles, squares, triangles and find out what you are able to create. Using a limited pallete can also be helpful.
Icons have History – eg the stone age, the Olympics
Icons are language Agnostic – understandable globally. Think IKEA clear.
When making icon set make sure they are consistent in colour, line width, fill, thickness, etc.
You find icons on your phone, the airport, they are everywhere.
When using icons for a navigation system, it is a good idea to have the icon window you are currently in to be filled in as it aids navigation – eg think of how Instagram fills in the house icon when in the home page.
Icons are now an integral part of visual identities, program interfaces, information systems, websites and mobile applications.
Using mind maps as research are a great way to show your thought process.
Remember when creating forms, different forms and gestures that are accepted culturally in your country may not be accepted in theirs. Be respectful. Do your research.
Style
- Outline icons
- Glyph icons
- Han-drawn icons
- Filled icons
- Flat icons
- Skeuomorphic icons
Scaling
38mm – 48px — 80px — 172px
Consider scaling carefully as it needs to retrain its shape and detail if made bigger or smaller.
Required reading
- The icon handbook
- Material design
Task
- Make an icon set for your travel app
- Where am I going with my idea? eg travel through the body? time? Space? the Ocean? the world?
- Mind map like crazy
- Create a simple paper/Miro wireframe – or both?