Background: Four Icon Challenge

In this step, we’ll be learning about icons.

Icons

Icons are defined as a “picture, image, or other representation.” and “a picture or symbol that appears on a monitor and is used to represent a command, eg. a file drawer to represent filing.”

Icons are simple shapes often created in one color that are used to explain, symbolise or represent an idea.

The most ubiquitous are the icons (or pictograms) of males and females that appear on public bathroom doors. A quick discussion with your students based on how they know which bathroom to use will soon bring up all kinds of thoughts and ideas about how something as simple as gender is portrayed through the use of simple shapes.

The noun project is a commercial collective of crowdsourced graphic icons and a great designer tool.

Visit the website and explore the different ways in which designers express one idea in hundreds of different forms: https://thenounproject.com

Four Icon Challenge

Kyle Tezak, a graphic designer from Chicago, developed the Four Icon Challenge as a personal project attempting to reduce stories into four icons while keeping the narrative intact.

It forces you to re-examine some of your favorite stories and gain a deeper understanding of them.

“The Four Icon Challenge is my attempt at visually summarizing my favorite books and movies using only, that’s right, four icons. Boiling a story down to four elements gave me a surprising amount of insight into the author’s message and intentions, as well as the role recurring objects play in storytelling”.

Take a look at more designs here: http://kyletezak.com/four-icon-challenge.html