(motivation) create iconic images set representative of key concepts described by prompts or dialogue with AI (background) I had a quick whip around the world of AI image generation with this in mind. It seems there is vast and growing range of AI tools (prior art) there is a lot of it. For example fontawsome:
and the popular collaborative tool:
However, I’m thinking more about a design and development process to create something more domain specific. That is, not project specific or brand focused, but conceptually aligned for use within a specific domain. The set of icons should appear to be part of the same family but convey their unique meaning within it. That is to say, like a quality font, all the characters should appear to have the same heritage. Now there is the unicode standard list of emoji:
https://unicode.org/emoji/charts/full-emoji-list.html
which is on everyone’s device, along with platform specific variations. This is sort of what I mean, but these are very generic and general purpose. They have become the basis for a language off of their own which is perfect for what they’ve been designed (or evolved) for. On the other hand, one can craft one or more “logo” or symbolic images, using a traditional design approach:
(research and analysis) (understand the audience) who are you targeting? Different cultures and age groups may interpret images differently (analyse existing symbols) study existing symbols, emoticons, or visual languages to understand their strengths and limitations (scope) general concepts or a specific domain like healthcare, technology, or social issues?
(conceptualisation and design) (idea generation) brainstorm ideas for each concept you want to communicate. Sketch multiple versions if possible (simplicity) keep the designs as simple as possible for easy recognition and interpretation (uniformity) maintain a consistent style, size, and colour scheme throughout the set (test for ambiguity) ensure that the symbols are not easily confused with each other or existing symbols (cultural sensitivity) make sure the icons are universally understandable, avoiding culturally specific elements if possible.
(validation and iteration) (peer review) show your designs to others in your target audience and gather feedback (a/b testing) if possible, use digital platforms to perform A/B tests to gauge the effectiveness of different designs (iterate) make revisions based on the feedback and test again (documentation) Create a guide or legend that explains each icon’s intended meaning.
All this is very labour intensive and seems to me, ripe for AI automation so (question) what AI platforms or solutions do you now of that can automate as much of this as possible?
This is as much a UI/UX question as a generative AI one. There is a veritable explosion of “simple” tools to create icons and images. However there is not much I’ve been able to find that works to make redundant the labour involved in the steps above.
(ai logo/icon generators) it’s long and this is only part of it!
