To learn the skills required to develop our own icon sets, this semester we are going to do some master-apprentice tasks each week. This is based on the fine art method of learning where for the first five years or so, an apprentice would work in the studio of a master artist, copying their work. This “focused copying” would enable the apprentice to learn the skills required to make the work of the masters, before continuing their training and if successful becoming a master themselves one day.
Nowadays, this training method is no longer commonplace, it take a lot of time and most businesses want junior staff that can come in and create useful work almost straight away. There are still apprenticeship schemes in place but they tend to concentrate on technical subjects such as Software Engineering, Vehicle Repair and trade roles (plumber, electrician, etc.) and are not common in the design industry. I myself was an apprentice light vehicle mechanic, and can vouch for the fact that a well run apprenticeship with people who want to pass on their skills is a great way to learn. You get practical hands-on experience right from the start and you learn by doing, gradually developing your skills until you are ready to take jobs on, independently.
With the master-apprentice tasks we are completing this semester we are trying to replicate a small amount of this way of learning into our module. This week we were given a set of icons and asked to pick some to replicate in a suitable vector based graphic design tool, I chose Adobe Illustrator as I have access and experience with using it as well as it being the main industry standard vector graphic tool.
Below are my “focused copying” exercises where I selected three icons to create a version of. The original versions are on the left with my “focused copied” versions on the right. These are not the most complicated icons, but they are a good start to get more comfortable with Illustrator and its many tools. I looked at what shapes made up each icon and selected the tool within Illustrator I felt would best replicate the shape, I used the shape tools, line segment tool, pen tool, curvature tool and the line width tool, in these three exercises. I am happy with the results and will continue to complete more of the icon set when I have time between my other work.
While I was carrying out some research in the library, for inspiration I was looking at this book on logos and fonts:
Inside it offered not only theoretical information, but also practical tasks you could carry out to inspire your work and improve your skills. One of these tasks it suggested was Creative Copying:
Whilst Creative Copying is not the same as the Master-Apprentice method, it almost feels like the next step. Where instead of trying to replicate exactly the work of someone else, you look at the work of others and use it as inspiration, or you take multiple works and put them together to form something new. I feel this is where I hope to end up and that using the Master-Apprentice approach is what will help me to do that, first step Master-Apprentice next step creative copying. I found this interesting that the author of this book was thinking along the same lines as what we are doing. It shows how it is a accepted and respected part of the learning process to copy or creatively copy the work of others to improve your own work.
Below I have finished my first set of Master-Apprentice icons, they are not perfect, some of the strokes are a little thin, or the sizing is slightly off. But overall I am happy with how they have come out. I may return to these and try to improve them if time allows. Definitely the ear listening icon needs some work on its curves. It has been a great learning exercise and I will definitely do more like this to sharpen my skills, in icon design and creation.
After working on replicating icon sets for the past two weeks, this week we were set a new master-apprentice task. This time we were given a screens from a music app, to replicate. We were given three different options, you can see the one I selected below: