Hey I made some new icons for matygo

Hey I made some new icons for matygo

26 Apr 6short url

Updating Icons

One of my latest tasks for Placeling was to create a gas station icon to fit in an existing set of icons. 

The original icons:
 

Fairly obvious requirements in order to fit the style: beige colour scheme, some perspective, hint at retro feel. 

Per usual, I started in the sketch book.

With a little feedback, I decided that just the handle was the way to go. I thought it turned out alright.

Unfortunately, not everyone could identify what it was immediately (oh no!). Back to the drawing board. That’s okay, it’s nice to have options. 


Feedback was split down the middle, everyone seemed to have strong opinions towards one or the other. Real helpful. Eventually I boiled it down; most prefer the close up aesthetically, but worry that it’s not as easy to identify. Ultimately, it’s more important to work then it is to look good, so I suppose that the one on the left is the clear winner, right?

Unless there’s a third option. 
Too often, designers make the hand off to a client, wash their hands of it and never look at it again. It is important to remind yourself that this is your work, these are your clients; and you want the very best for both of them. Just because your clients are satisfied with what you did for them months ago, doesn’t mean that you should be. If you see an opportunity to improve, do it - if you see a problem, fix it (please don’t wait to be asked).

I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this. The issue with my icon set, is the constraints in the colour scheme. I know it’s a problem for this icon, and will continue to cause problems with each icon that is added to the set. Let’s fix this.

The obvious place to start: adding colour 

Some of them look great full colour…


But as a set, I find the colours to be awkward.



Try again. This time, I only added a *smidgin*  of colour.

 

Better… But what if it’s not the color that’s the problem? What if I can solve this with just the contrast?



Or even, add colour AND contrast??

 


Awesome. Now. I’ve been staring at these for so long that I have no idea which one looks good. 

20 Jan 11short url