Jamie Campbell
Brief
Client: Making Visual Media Studio Administration
Staff of the MVM Design Studio have an icon that is reflective of their own face and these icons are used throughout the studio marketing material, contact pages, etc.
I must use my own face as reference material and create a concept for an icon as a profile picture.
I have the ability to change the colour.
The style should reflect the samples below:
Design Statement
I am to make an icon that is representative of myself in the style of the icons for MVM Design Studio. I am going to continue the black-and-white colour scheme so my design can be like the example above.
Observations
Screen grabs (Illustrator) - Experiments
I gathered the existing icons that are similar to my face and placed them together. From this point I can identify what attributes I can take from the existing icons to make my own that resembles myself.
Image on Left-hand side: I made a swatch of line weights (1pt to 11pt) Using the image in the middle I compared the line weights used and determined them to be wights 2pt (facial features) and 5pt (icon outline). I will use these weights to design my icon.
Image in the center: I have used figure 2 to create a grid that outlines the make-up of the icon. From this I know that the face is symmetrical, but eyebrow/ eye can be left out if it clashes with hair or some sort of equipment. I notice that the hair (all full blocked coloured) or the job attribute (e.g. microphone of figure 4) of the person's icon give the illustration some style so in my case I would add strips in my hair, this should give my icon some style that matches the existing examples.
Image on the Right-hand side: The full grid of the make up of an icons face. I main features I need to take note of include: the top and bottom of the face and hair, level and position of where the hair parts at the forehead, sizes and positions of the facial features that are the eyes and eyebrows (no nose or mouth as existing samples don't have these facial features) and the balance of the entire composition of the facial features and the hair.
These illustrations show the process of how I generated a digital version of the Icon head shape and facial features.
1. Existing Icon with similar features (hair partition)
2. Design a grid on the icon (use pen tool and appropriate curvature pen weight to draw over the icon)
3. Remove grid and align features to match the icon template
4. The Icon Face template complete with facial features.
Sketches
After designing a digital icon head, I traced the form onto paper 6 times then added hair to them. With each hair design I drew a grid so that I can interpret id the proportion is correct.
1. Pro: Like the subtle hair partition at the top of the head Con: Forgot about the location of the hair parting of the forehead
2. Pro: Shape of the form of the outline of the hair Con: Sides of hair partition is too curved and defined, it also covers eyes, must make more simplistic to match existing icon styles
3. Pro: Size of the strip Con: Hair looks too slim for the head shape
4. Pro: Top of the hair partition of at the top of the head Con: starting position of hair partition on the forehead (too high)
5. Pro: Bottom of the hair tips Con: Sizes of the hair partition at the top of the head
6. Pro: Symmetry of the hair strip Con: Curve of the side of the bottom end of the hair tip
I like figure 5 the best due to the balance of the hair with the face, I just need to sort out the positioning of the upper parting of the hair at the tip of the icon's head.
Screen grabs (Illustrator) - Process
Outcome
Above is the outcome after experimentation and process. A positive is that the process to develop and create an icon (using a reference sketch) is very quick and simple). A Negative of this icon is that the stripes of the hair and hair shape feels unbalanced.
I will edit this icon to correct the proposed errors.
Screen grabs (Illustrator) - Editing process
List of Changes
1. Increased weight of face outline
2. Selected the eyebrow stroke to have curved ends (looks fuller)
3. Changed hair partition (balance corrected)
4. Made the stripes more into a wave
Experiment
I have made a giff of the icon to test colours for the strip. I have decided that the black and white version will be the chosen final design as colour takes away from the clean and minimalist nature of the illustration.
Final Outcome
