One of the projects that I worked on with the Surveillance Research Program (SRP) required me to go through the process of creating an icon set. While I had created icon sets as part of a class, this was the first time working with a client. As a result, there were a number of key takeaways I got from the first process.

The first and most important lesson was the consequences of separating the icon design from overall slide. I had initially wanted to have the two designed together, but the slide deck design guidelines went through several dozen design changes, including layout, typography and color palette. As a result, I had to isolate the basic requirements for the icon set. This included simple things such as color palette and shape to more complex ideas such as brand identity. However, this led to problems later on down the line.

Part of this process also involved the creation of a backlog and other documentation. I first plotted out the storyboard to understand how the icons might fit into the possible design of the video. After talking through the first draft with the client, I then created a backlog to break down the available steps into smaller chunks. This way allowed me to incorporate a number of the changes that were requested by a client on a shorter term basis. This process was especially helpful during a second revision from the client: the icon set of 50 was shrunk to 20, and specific examples were given as a basis for the type of icon they wanted.

The next major thing that I learned was the importance of consistency. As part of the design process, I had made several different designs for different icons of the set. While this was great for brainstorming, I had to then go through the entire icon set in order to make it consistent across all of them. However, this led to issues as I began to combine the icon set with the slides: given that there was an established slide template for the conference, I had to go with consistency through more subtle cues. The key areas of focus within the slideshow, such as folder tabs or gears, were highlighted with the blue color scheme, where as less important information used grey.

I first did my icon rough drafts on pen and paper, especially to get a number of the key concepts down. I then took these and updated these with two different tools. For simple icons and shapes, I simply used the functionality provided in Powerpoint. For more complex icons, I used functionality within Photoshop, although I tried to keep the design simple enough that changes would not take a long time.