Graduate Studio 571: SiGNS & SymboloGySpriNG 2013 | Whitley r. Kemble

PROJECT 3.2: MOBILE APP ICON

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mySeedSaver App 4Research 6Matrix 8Sketches 10Iterations 12Semi-Final(s) 14Refinements 16Final Experiments 18Final & Icon in Use 20

CONTENTs

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The Seed Savers Exchange has been operat-ing out of Decorah, IA for more than 35 years. Their mission is “to conserve and promote America’s culturally diverse but endangered food crop heritage for future generations.” The folks at Seed Savers offer a variety of services.

In addition to helping their customers determine what types of vegetables to sow and which varieties are best suited for their region, they also strive to educate gardeners and vegetable enthusiasts everywehre on how to plant, care for, harvest and preserve thousands of varieties of heirloom plants sold in their shop. CONCEPT Similar to the myNaturalist app listed in the syllabus, mySeedSaver would be an informa-tional app. Rather than pinpoint where certain animals have been sighted, this app would store data on each of the varieties of plants avail-able at their store. This data would be made available as a sort of “plant profile” to help Seed Savers customers plan their gardens, give them tips on plant care, and instruc-tions for collecting and storing their seeds.

myseedsaver

IMAGES Several webpage examples from the Seed Savers site. Their logo, right, as well as their site was heavy in green. Photos of the vibrant vegetables re-ally popped against the background.

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Because I’m already a customer of Seed Savers and have been to their actual store, I had a basic understanding of what they do and why it’s important. I did check into their history, though, as well as some of the educational resources for on their website. In doing so, I discovered that there is actually a strong sense of community at its core. The people are very much involved with the organiza-tion, and people really enjoy what they do.

IMAGES The concept map at right helped get ideas flowing. The im-ages opposite served as a ba-sis for some of my symbols.

REsEARCH

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Photo courtesy of SeedSavers.org Photo courtesy of SeedSavers.orgPhoto courtesy of SeedSavers.org Photo courtesy of SeedSavers.org

Photo courtesy of SeedSavers.orghttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WmqUS-XS-sk/TdAAVVMN-eI/

AAAAAAAAAGU/7ED9OZv8W1s/s640/hands_soil.jpgCupped hands, courtesy of Photo Bucket http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg35/nickcarter03/hands1.jpg

Current logo for Seed Savers Exchange

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IMAGES For this project, we were asked to create a matrix with attri-butes along one axis and design principles along the other.

It was really difficult to narrow my list of at-tributes. It seemed the more I went through the process of sketching, the more at-tributes seemed to appear. I tried to have a good range of symbols, though. Some of the categories were a bit morphed, but overall I think there were some really strong ideas represented in great variety.

MATRIX

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sKETCHEs

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Original

Original Dark

Fields 1

Fields 1 Dark

Fields 2

Fields 2 Dark

REFINEMENTs

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IMAGES There were several experiments with color, ground, sky, and even line weight and textures.

Color was something I really struggled with in this project. I tried to pull color from what was on the existing Seed Savers website, but their current palette didn’t offer much in the way of contrast. Green was an ab-solute must, obviously, so I experimented with many values of a handful of hues.

There was also the issue of reduceability. I have a tendency to get too much into detail, which you can see here with the hand renderings, as well as some of the earth/fields. The shape here is good, but I knew it would present a problem when finalizing the design for use as an icon.

ITERATIONs

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I chose this basic shape as my semi-final symbol. As previously mentioned, the color needed to be developed further. I experimented with several different shade of blue, gradients as well as flat color, before finally deciding on yellow.

The yellow, I felt, would really make the sym-bol pop against a dark background, and it offered some nice references to sunlight and growing. These things are indicated by the sprout as well, but the yellow seemed stronger than the other color experiments.

Finally, I experimented with the hands. Some were flipped, some were turned around, and others were separated. The closer view of the separated hands helped clarify the symbol.

IMAGES While all were representative in meaning, the yellow background seemed to be much stronger.

sEMI-FINAL

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IMAGES Final experiments with line weight, color dominance, and value really helped give this symbol greater contrast.

After settling on the yellow background, it was time to refine the symbol. I experimented with line weight, the value of the brown earth and lines, and changed the hands up to try to give it a greater contrast.

Although there seemed to be greater con-trast with the darker hands, it seemed too unnatural to me. I decided to tint the lighter hands slightly and increase the dominance of yellow in my background.

FINAL EXPERIMENTs

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IMAGES The final symbol at various sizes. You can see how earlier adjustments con-tributed to a stronger final outcome.

For my final symbol, I decided to use a slightly subtler gradient in the background. I made the color of the space around the seed completely white so that it would stand out more against the background.

The earth, as well as the hands were made slightly darker, and the hadns were moved further apart. The final line weight on the hands was bumped up to 2pt, which really helped define their shape.

FINAL sYMBOL

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