Illustrate Your Day: An Intro to Symbol Design

Symbols are incredibly powerful communication tools. They can communicate faster than words, in memorable and powerful ways, and in a universal way that transcends cultural and language barriers. They are the one language we all can understand. 

During this class you will learn how to create these amazing communication tools using vector editing software, and use symbols to tell the story of a day in your life.

What You'll Learn

• Selecting Your Referents. We'll start off by bubbling ideas for icons we'd like to create and begin sketching them.
• Design Techniques to Maximize User Comprehension. We'll cover some basic elements of icon design then apply design technique to our referents to create more refined sketches.
• Drawing Symbols in Illustrator. We'll use Adobe Illustrator to create digital vectors of our icon designs. 
• Polishing Your Designs. We'll finalize our icons and share them with the world.

What You'll Make

You will start off the class by documenting what your daily routine is. After you think through this, you will narrow down these items to a list of the 20 essential activities or objects that define your daily life. Once you have these 20 referents you will learn how to design a symbol that visually communicates the essence of each one of these concepts.
Once the designs are completed you will create a linear timeline using your symbols. This will serve as a visual representation of your life. 

This class is perfect for anyone wanting to learn more about Adobe Illustrator, graphic design, iconography, illustration, and creative storytelling.

• Creating Your List of Referents
• Design Techniques for Your Icons
• A Crash Course to Adobe Illustrator
• Designing a Symbol in Adobe Illustrator
• Creating the Final Product