Villagio Food Court, semi - final

At this stage I'm starting to chose which icons I would like to use as my final chosen 8 icons. And begin to finalize them so that they all look similar. However, my instructor has informed that if i chose to work with people for the icons, I should only use people, and if i work with objects then i should only show icons, and etc. and not mix those two things because it would be confusing for the viewer. Second she also advised that i change the color of the squares for the icons since it has been used so many times. And that i should do something different and unique. The color must reflect the food court aswell.

Type and Icons

For my type selection I chose to use Grotesque and Naskh. Both typefaces I felt had a good balance between the curved and straight strokes that both relate well to the concept of Aspire. What I noticed most while selecting Grotesque for the latin typeface is that the curse especially on the lowercase r, reflect the curve of the track. I also feel that Naskh and Grotesque balance each other well through stroke width and their x can easily be balanced. And they are both very clear and legible.

refining and finding the suitable typefaces

1. this is the collection of icons that I've tried to finalize yet they still had some issues with the system









2. while being critiqued by both the class instructor and having a discussion with another teacher outside the class about systems in icons I started understanding more and knowing what could make an icon not belong to the system there are several points or elements to think of
- the most obvious problem is whether my icons should be flat or dimensional choosing one of these and keeping it consist ant which is what was lacking in the images shown above the shopping cart and the shopping bag are dimensional while mostly the other icons are flat
- the quality of the icons' edges whether they should be pointed and sharp or having them all with a rounded edge which I was trying to achieve but wasn't completely solved yet in some of the icons
-the consistency of the thickness of my stroke depending on the style of my icon for example in my icons I have to keep it consistent and not vary from one icon to another but from critique and observation other students who have chosen Arabic calligraphy style to there icons their strokes vary from thicks and thins but still having it consistent in all their icons
- lastly is the percentage of black I have as a fill color in my icons so for example if one icon has 70% black then it should be as consistent in the other icons which was still lacking in the alarm tag icon and the shopping cart icon

by such notes I tried to improve my icons as shown in the following:









and for arabic type I've searched for the most suitable arabic type that had similar counter space, x-height, stroke weight, and the proper legibility as well as their syntactic formal relationship to the icons. I've struggled with finding a suitable Arabic type then I was recommended to look through the GE fonts for suitable Arabic typeface

in case you were wondering what are GE fonts they are called Graph East fonts which from their name are designed to suit arabic typeface but they are designed to mimic the feel of latin typefaces in their shape, line quality and so on so far they are not available in the vcuq system but they are available in a few forums that I've looked at mostly arabic forums

GraphEast
جراف ايست

Developing a system

since my previous attempts were not applicable to the mood and place, ie VCU. I now tried by having just indexes of my problems, so that it is more in reponse to my audience whichare basically designers. Yet my challenge was to communicate these indexes well which wouold answer the problems
for example :
the spraying glue on floor. instead of actually showing the spray can used on floor, i tried by showing only the shoe stuck on to the glue on floor.
the throwing of trash on floor. instead of having a hand dropping trash i now just thought of having crushed paper fallen on the floor.
the the cutting on table. instead of showing the exacto knife and hand i simply traced the marks on the table.
disposing of the exacto blades. since i felt tha a cut is an index of this, i showed blood and bandaid. yet not convinced if this communicates well.
wasting printing paper. i showed papers just cuming out of the printer. yet here i felt i wasnt just following my system which was not to show the object that is the printer.
the spraying in classrooms. here i showed the spray all in the air.
the extra ones: i thought of closing the taps properly. here i just showed water droplets from the tap.
and then i thought of doing the toilets. putting just straight geometrical figures so tha not a lot of detail shows and it is in correspondence with the other icons. but still doubtful about it

exploring with different materials and techniques

I used the sponge roll and dip it in the ink to have a feeling of smudgy textures. each time i try it in a different way . I played with the negative area. it's make a big different when I cover a part or fill it with ink.

writing on the wood and fabric gives fuzzy edges result.

Abu Hamour

After my 1-1 critique ,I had a lot of good advice how to better improve my signage's system and quality.I also found a better typeface that ave better texture.

Villagio Food Court, icons

I tried to make two icons for each problem so that I have an option in the end, when refining the last chosen ones.

These are two examples of icons I made for "Talking softly" icon. Because usually food courts are very noisy and it is hard to hear one another.

Stand In Line

Throw Trash

Arrows

No Left Over Food

Fruit and Vegetable Market, phase 3

After finishing my first 4 icons I started developing the next 4. Keeping with the same feel to keep a unity between all the icons.
Here are the problems I addressed:

-The icon below is to show people visiting the market where whatever they are buying will be wighted to calculate how much they will need to be paying.

-The icon below is to warn people of the uneven floors of the market.


-The Last two icons are to help people find their way around the market. The first icon points to where the fruits area is and the second points to the vegetable section.
When the two icons are placed next to each other I feel that they are better read.
These two icons are the only two without any human figure, however I think they still work well and carrier a sense of unity with the other icons.