Yuck, Ew, Gross Reflection

Reflecting back on the icons I made their was a lot to think about. Taking the title Yucky, Ew, Gross I wanted to make a story based on exactly that. At first I thought of the human anatomy and taking a story into what gross bowel movements people have. After being grossed out, I looked further into biology and what many type there are. Organisms- such any living system, animal, plant, fungus, and microorganism. After looking into insects (Hemiptera) and their curious nature, I choose bugs because of just that, they seem to have an interest in people as well being able to make people cringe. I wanted to approach a little kid going on a bug hunt, correction yucky bugs. I wanted to think of key objects that are associated with hunting, and bugs. When picked apart these objects just appear to be an object but when you put even three objects together the viewer is able to understand the narrative.

Objects- Jar, Backpack, Magnifying Glass, Bug Net, Leaf, Caterpillar, Snail, Cockroach, Spider, and Glove

Researching these objects was difficult to think about all of Index’s and Symbol’s. For example, the index for a bug net would be a bug, and net. The symbolic meaning would be to capture something. This is important to the icon process because it helps to further strengthen the narrative because one icon can represent all three semiotic signs. Becoming familiar with the objects by the end I was enlightening, I learned a lot about different bugs. (Once again I was grossed out)

Moving into the drawing portion was hard for me to do. Finding the difference between icon, illustration, and drawing can feel just like the three semiotic signs, it is easy to overlap them. When first drawing it was hard for me to let loose for the intuitive drawings and really focus of wrap one swipe of charcoal for a full drawing. Even intentional drawings were a challenge being that I haven’t tried to balance three-dimensional object to a more graphic surface. (It was different, but good for me) Because icons are just that, they do not look like a three dimensional object but reference one (a.k.a iconic). However, you may reference a three-dimensional surface by scale change, reflection, and other techniques. I used those for my bug jar (which in the end the reflection was not included in the composition). To get the surface of glass, I had to look at the lid, the angle of how the jar sits, and the lid of the glasses ridges.

In class we discussed four things that make an icon an icon. Those are legibility, scale change, remembrance, and cohesion. To blend all three of these elements were the next step, and practically working in that order. When beginning to take my “sketches” and translate them into objects, I had a huge problem with legibility, practically until the end. I never realized how easy it was to mistake one object for something completely different. For example my leaf to begin with look as if it was a cocoon, my spider looked like a crab, and my jar well it just didn’t look like anything. We used a matrix system, which made me take my objects and try and create them in different stylistic forms. By making stylistic choices such as negative, and background I started to look at all the option my icons can make. By making these choices it not only makes them stylized to what I had created by also cohesive. Problems I had were being able to communicate them clearly, while making them not boring.

Once I had drawn out all of my objects in a clear way of what exactly they were, like a jar for bugs, not jam, not a saltshaker, but a bug jar. The direction I choose was to make my objects with a black background, more organic curved shapes, and positioning them all in the same direction. They also break the frame, and let the viewer’s eye imagine where some of the black spaces would be. Looking at all the matrix iterations we had done some objects were dismissed because they did not fit with the representational I wanted them to, like the spider. Even sizing the objects was an element to look at, because of certain details sometimes they are lost when scaled down, or when some objects are scaled bigger they seem to not be balanced in proportional of positive and negative space. Looking back at all the steps we took, and all the iterations we had done, they were important to finalizing an icon. To me an icon can speak in that semiotic signal way. This is how they are apart from illustrations, and drawings, because a set of icons is cohesive and can be scaled to vary proportions.

Overall I am pretty happy with my icons. I would however like to have pushed myself to do more than just six. In the end though I believe my story to have a complete narrative with the six, but more is always better. Something that I really need to push myself on is my craft. Not just on this project have I had problems with craftsmanship. I believe I really need to work on getting to the point of perfection. As a designer it is good to talk verbally and written wise. In my icon’s I wish I could just have a few more go around on how to improve the white/black proportions. As individuals I feel they look complete but as a set I am starting to notice more that some have more black space and some have more white space. I also am not a fan of my bug in the bug jar; he just doesn’t look quite right in there. The one icon I believe that works the best would be the caterpillar. The shape is organic, equal negative and positive space. The caterpillar also follows the elements that were mentioned earlier.