Good Medicine

'Icons for Advertising Campaign.'

Now that summer is over I can officially declare it "The Summer of Icons". I designed icons for Merck, AllState Insurance, Oxford University Press, Novell and recently these two sets for an ad agency that specializes in medical services and products called "Medicus" out of New York. These icons will be used in an advertising campaign.

Icons are an interesting mix of design and illustrative skill sets. Sometimes your asked to design an icon for a somewhat nebulous term or functionality like "Save" which depending upon the context could take on a variety of visual solutions. Other icon projects they provide a laundry list of specified topics or items that are more literal then figurative and the challenge creatively speaking is to create simplistic i.e. "Iconic" images that work together as a family style wise. This is easier said then done when dealing with subject matter that in and of itself may be complex. But I guess that is why I enjoy it so much it's always a challenge to pull it off well.

I have to admit when I was asked to do the flexing arm with the "Mom Tattoo" I thought to myself "OK, that one is going to look stupid." But as is usual that was just my creative defense mechanism venting it's fear of the artistic unknown. In the end it turned out to be my favorite one out of all of them. Go figure.