chunks of flommus
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i drew an icon every day

Every day in 2016, I drew an icon – based upon the events of my day. And they are all here:

The catalyst was in mid-September of the previous year. As a graphic designer, I had been frustrated with how a project’s SVG icons were rendering unapologetically blurry online.

With a quick search, I learned they should adhere to a grid, with pixel perfection – things that dictated alignment, placement, and stroke width.

I immediately loved the idea of juxtaposing creativity within technical boundaries and wanted to learn as much as I could along the way. But every article seemed to suggest different, conflicting executions and most assumed I had some prior understanding. I spent the next few days reading what felt like every single article about iconography on the web.

(If you’re curious about the techniques, a few months later I documented my process for the client here.)

After that project was completed – fall 2015 – I decided that I wanted to really embrace the pixel grid. And what better way than practicing a little bit every day?

ICON02

So I committed: I decided to draw an icon every day for a year.

And at the time, I didn’t really realize what I was getting myself into. But my daily routine would inspire each icon; this gave me something to work from.

ICON01

I picked a larger, more illustrative-like approach (though retaining the pixel grid) to represent each day. Some days I drew them quickly – in twenty minutes. Other days, and probably more often, I’d spend closer to two or three hours.

ICON04

My motivation came in waves. Most days I looked forward to it. I’d do it in the morning with a cup of coffee or in the evening relaxing before bed. But a bunch of days in July I wanted to rip my hair out – I still was barely half done – on tired days I would tell myself to “just make one more.”

I’ve got a lot more to learn, but now the icon grid and I feel more like bffs than strangers. 2016 will always be a special year for me; it is one I will be able to literally look back on.

ICON03

P.S:
I’ve included download links as SVGs and PNGs on the site. I’m licensing them under MIT so they’re open for personal use.

Random observation:
I would say there would be about one day a month where I felt inferior and as if I forgot how to be a designer. This pattern made me realize it’s normal, and maybe I’ll cut myself some slack when these days come again.

—amy devereux