After a good 5+ year run, the FXFOWLE Sustainability Brochure was ready for a makeover. As Graphics Manager, I have been collaborating with Team Green's Green Graphics Group (the "GGG") on this project. My favorite part of this redesign process was the refresh of our green icon set—a series of six graphic symbols, each representing one of the firm's sustainable design concerns.
There is nothing new about the green icon exercise. Google it. You'll immediately see that sustainability, or at the very least, greenwashing, is the hottest trend. Countless icons have been created to illustrate green principles—but none communicate FXFOWLE's exact approach to the topic, so, once again, we set out to create our own.
Our Green Office
Our original green icon set, designed about 5 years ago, has since become a major part of our office standards. Six unique icons represent our six major building concerns: Site, Energy, Materials & Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, Water and Biophilia, and Human Well Being. We use these icons in our architectural diagrams and graphics, marketing materials, speeches, presentations, and around the office—anywhere and everywhere we can. So how do you improve upon something that has become an everyday standard within the office? How do you effectively illustrate an intangible, sustainable concept and all of the knowledge, research, and hard work that goes along with it?
Blue is the New Green
A key element in any successful set of graphics is the color palette. Color will drive the look-and-feel of the new Sustainability Brochure. The original set used a distinct color for each of the six icons. Personally, I've been fixated on minimizing the palette. We explored sets of analogous colors to create a synergy between the icons, while at the same time allowing them to keep their own identity. We were especially careful not to overuse the color green. It would be a rookie mistake. Instead, we focused our new green icon set around the color blue—soothing, tranquil, and of nature.
The Bolder the Better
Next to color, the main feature of a new icon set is the pictogram itself. The shapes must be simple and instantly recognizable. Creating an instantly recognizable image of a conceptual idea is a more challenging design problem than creating icons for physical things, such a restroom, a bus, or an elevator. We also wanted each pictogram to both fit within its circle and stand on its own in a grand expanse of white space. The pictograms must be BOLD. Bolder than before!
Reaching an Elegant Solution
Some of the pictograms are pretty literal; Water and Human Well Being didn't need much more than some stylistic tweaks. Others, however, like Materials & Resources, needed extra attention and brainstorming from the team. We thought about the concepts behind the categories. Take the first category for example: Site. A site is a geographical location. In the general world, that could be represented by, say, a pushpin on a map. In the world of sustainability, however, site could mean a greenfield, a brownfield, a field of grass, a habitat for animals, or a dense urban metropolis. In this case, we may even define a site using LEED credit terminology—heat-island, light pollution, stormwater, density, transportation. We started sketching: blades of grass, oceans meeting mountains, mountains meeting skyscrapers, skyscrapers meeting trees, and finally back to a single tree, simple and bold. The tree sits on a plane: a field of grass, a sidewalk, or simply... a site!
After countless rounds of graphic studies, we finally arrived at six elegant solutions that, when grouped together, feel like a happy graphic family. The new icons are already becoming a wonderful complement to the existing FXFOWLE branding and culture.
There is nothing new about the green icon exercise. Google it. You'll immediately see that sustainability, or at the very least, greenwashing, is the hottest trend. Countless icons have been created to illustrate green principles—but none communicate FXFOWLE's exact approach to the topic, so, once again, we set out to create our own.
Our Green Office
Our original green icon set, designed about 5 years ago, has since become a major part of our office standards. Six unique icons represent our six major building concerns: Site, Energy, Materials & Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, Water and Biophilia, and Human Well Being. We use these icons in our architectural diagrams and graphics, marketing materials, speeches, presentations, and around the office—anywhere and everywhere we can. So how do you improve upon something that has become an everyday standard within the office? How do you effectively illustrate an intangible, sustainable concept and all of the knowledge, research, and hard work that goes along with it?
Blue is the New Green
A key element in any successful set of graphics is the color palette. Color will drive the look-and-feel of the new Sustainability Brochure. The original set used a distinct color for each of the six icons. Personally, I've been fixated on minimizing the palette. We explored sets of analogous colors to create a synergy between the icons, while at the same time allowing them to keep their own identity. We were especially careful not to overuse the color green. It would be a rookie mistake. Instead, we focused our new green icon set around the color blue—soothing, tranquil, and of nature.
The Bolder the Better
Next to color, the main feature of a new icon set is the pictogram itself. The shapes must be simple and instantly recognizable. Creating an instantly recognizable image of a conceptual idea is a more challenging design problem than creating icons for physical things, such a restroom, a bus, or an elevator. We also wanted each pictogram to both fit within its circle and stand on its own in a grand expanse of white space. The pictograms must be BOLD. Bolder than before!
Reaching an Elegant Solution
Some of the pictograms are pretty literal; Water and Human Well Being didn't need much more than some stylistic tweaks. Others, however, like Materials & Resources, needed extra attention and brainstorming from the team. We thought about the concepts behind the categories. Take the first category for example: Site. A site is a geographical location. In the general world, that could be represented by, say, a pushpin on a map. In the world of sustainability, however, site could mean a greenfield, a brownfield, a field of grass, a habitat for animals, or a dense urban metropolis. In this case, we may even define a site using LEED credit terminology—heat-island, light pollution, stormwater, density, transportation. We started sketching: blades of grass, oceans meeting mountains, mountains meeting skyscrapers, skyscrapers meeting trees, and finally back to a single tree, simple and bold. The tree sits on a plane: a field of grass, a sidewalk, or simply... a site!
After countless rounds of graphic studies, we finally arrived at six elegant solutions that, when grouped together, feel like a happy graphic family. The new icons are already becoming a wonderful complement to the existing FXFOWLE branding and culture.