I recently created a icon set to go along with the course I was developing, which was about communicating as a designer or researcher. When I was initially coming up with the course, I realized that I would need to have graphics for the amount of information that I was hoping to convey within the course.

However, using high-quality pictures for the amount of slides I was going to organize did not seem to be feasible. The attribution for the slides as well as video rendering was a lot to ask.

Therefore, I thought it would be useful to not only learn a new tool, Figma, but also create an icon set to provide graphics to the information that would be conveyed.

I started by mapping out the types of words or messages that I was trying to convey with as icons. They were usually centered around one concept, such as “Provide an alternative” might be.

I then looked at doing some basic iconography from other sources such as the Noun Project. I searched for what the standards might be for certain concepts, such as for word patterns like “Alternative.”

I then began to take these concepts for icons into Figma, where I sought to iterate fast. Given that I needed to create nearly 50 icons for my online course, I sought to establish some baselines in design. I would largely be working with a set color pattern, as well as simple patterns that I could extend towards multiple icons.