The Design of Character Icon

Lots of vulnerable groups don’t get enough attention in modern society, so I design such group of icons to help these people will get more help from others.

The vulnerable groups have their own features. At the beginning, I classify the disabled into several types, such as people without hand or leg. But there is no significant difference between them. So I choose people who use wheelchairs and who are deaf-mute to represent the disabled. Besides, I also choose the old, pregnant woman, the blind and beggar, for they all have significant features, like the blind’s sunglasses and guide dog, the pregnant woman’s belly, the deaf-mute’s sign language and hearing aid, the old’s presbyopic glasses and woolen vest, the disabled’s wheelchair, the beggar’s patch and bowl. I try several graphs when drawing the sketch. But I find all of they seem complicated when I integrate their features into them. Therefore, in the end I use the triangle to make them be a unified series, because it can fully display their features both from the front and side.

In the process of making the character icon, the most important factor is to seize every character’s feature. Now more and more people make task icon about the different jobs. However, I choose to make an icon about the vulnerable groups, for I hope more and more people can know them 

intuitively and give them more attention.

City Brand Design -- Qingdao

  I want to design a city Logo for the map of Qingdao to share my experience. It will further promote Qingdao to attract more people to know about  the city. I browse the photos I took when I traveled around Qingdao, and I also surf on the Internet to see about the city flower of Qingdao, its special tourism projects, special local  products, city emblems of Qingdao which are designed by others over the years, etc.. Then I begin to simplify them. Combining with my own experiences and local interesting information, I select several  typical scenery spots in Qingdao.

    

  The simplified things become more intuitive and clearer. Then I combine them together in the character. I try to combine the simplified strokes with other strokes when designing the Logo. However, I find that it is too complicated. So I select one of them to have massive revision. Although the design of English letters are relatively simple, I make some efforts to highlight Qingdao as a coastal city. I add wavy line under the English letters to make them have both high recognition and local features. (12345 sketch of city brand design)

  The design of city logo has recognition, it integrates a city’s special features into a new icon. So one should have profound understanding of this city when designing the city logo. I try to simplify the stroke of the character, then I consider the distance between the two words when I add some special features. (intuitive and clear visual  explanation)

Chart Design -- Recent Air Pollution Condition in Beijing

The recent air pollution in Beijing is very serious. I hope to make a table to more intuitively reflect the change of air pollution index as well as more and more serious condition of Beijing’s air pollution.  I collect the recent curve chart of Beijing’s air pollution, air pollution index as well as the corresponding illustration of air index on the official website of American Embassy.   In the process of designing the icon, I originally intend to design the chart outline into a shape of the lung, but I find that it can’t highlight the change of data. Then I want to change the color of the table, but I find such table seems too relaxed. So in the end, except for the table, I make the whole words in dark gray and black. Because this can better show the air pollution. (Chart Sketch 1 and 2)

 the chart design requires accurate data, so I spend much time on looking for the data, then I select typical data in recent time. As the air pollution is a serious topic, I pay much attention to the selection of color, so most of auxiliary words are in gray. The use of chimney and gray particles can more intuitively show this chart design is about the air pollution.

Building Poster

The city I live in has a great gap between the rich and poor. And only ancient architectures are also occupied by modern buildings. Therefore, I make two posters of the city.

I want to design it in a abstract way, so I divide the poster into four parts. I collect some common devices in daily life to combine them together. Then I make up human organs, ears and side face which  can better show one is thinking. I choose the urban village as the place where the houses are dense and narrow and many workers live. At the beginning, I want to draw it in a realistic scenario which can show citizens’ life status with desperation and fickleness. However, in the end, I decide to express such phenomenon abstractly. In last part, I want to emphasize the conflict between modern architecture and traditional architecture, so I choose the traditional stone buildings and typical steel structure and glass in modern architecture.