Pictograms-recycling

I began the process of creating a recycling pictogram by looking at previous designs already developed. As the current recycling symbol is iconic and one of the most recognizable pictograms, I felt that my design should follow its basic structure, thus making it easily identifiable to the consumer.

When developing my initial sketches, I decided upon using a basic structure to formulate my approach. This was to contain the basic shape conjoining to create negative space within the centre of the design. I did this to allow for my designs to correlate with the iconically recognizable recycling symbol which appears often on packaging. When looking at my sketches it was clear that some appeared much more impactful than others, thus I decided to develop them further using C.A.D.

Using illustrator I began to develop my designs, focusing upon legibility, recognisability and impactfulness. Due to these considerations I felt that the central design would not be easily legible on a small scale due to its multiple components, and therefore was discontinued. When deciding upon the two remaining designs, I thought about factors such as what other ways they could be perceived. The right hand image possessed characteristics similar to that of the reverse symbol, thus distracting the consumer away from its initial context. Due to this reason I decided upon the Left image to be involved within the wayfinding system.