Students Union Icons: Development

This was one of the quicker briefs but I still took the same time and care. I already had the suggestions which made my life easier. Now it was a matter of creating what she had sugested to the best of my abilities.

• Sports
  football/netball

Before & After rounding

I began my mapping out basic shapes within a football. then progressed by rounding edges. I'm experimenting with how stylized I want these to be: whether I'd like them to be thing, thick, angular, rounded etc. As I move on to the other icons I feel the guidelines will define themselves based on how the icons interact together.

I didn't like the style of the first football created. The pattern was too obvious and the angle allowed for a distracting and unattractive outline when the leather patches were coloured. I create another that was more flattering. The patches communicated more a spherical shape. It insinuated a 3D object as supposed to the one before, which didn't translate as well.

• Fitness
  weights/ fitness class equipment
  kettle-bells/ boxing glove

I wanted to try my hand at all, so for my own sanity, I knew I had explored all suggestions before settling for one. I made simple versions of all just to get a feel of what I preferred. The boxing gloves were alright, just not a strong enough image. I felt the kettle bells would not fit well with the clean aesthetic I wanted to achieve, due to its natural disproportions.
At this stage I'm leaning toward straight lines, non-rounded icons, hence the decision for my to take the weight vector further. 

• Representation 
  (light bulb/megaphone)

I found this one rather tricky in terms of proportions and 'style'. It was around this point that I realised my icons weren't following a set of rules, or that I had even considered writing some. I knew that the stroke sizes would all have to be the same thickness and that the corners could either be angled or rounded, but I haven't yet considered things like:

- Do all vectors touch/Do all ends join? (see football)
- Can sectors exist separate of each other? (see weights)
- Will they be a square format, the width and height be equal regardless of shape?

I feel like not having these answered is making the process longer than it needs to be. I would like to do some further research into guidelines, rules and iconography in general to help better my knowledge and by a result my practice.  Research is something I would have to do anyway, but to directly realise it's importance is very satisfying. To see that it will directly make my process easier and of a better quality will help me greatly.

• Advice & Support
  (two speech bubbles)

Again, I just created a few examples exploring more rules of aesthetics I might want to create. Should they be filled and use negative space? Focusing on the 'square' idea, making sure everything is a perfect circle. Do they exist separately or do they join?

• Events(Use the events calendar logo created for Elections)

Looked back at development from the events logo and finished an earlier version.

• Societies
  (Use the societies logo created for Elections)

I looked into altering the already created logo slightly for it to look more complete, and also fit the guide of all vectors joining. Additionally I explored differing line weights.