✽ Seattle Waterfront

This Seattle Waterfront symbols set is designed for (unofficial) promotions of the City of Seattle's Waterfront Seattle project which recently renovated the Waterfront by building new streets and parks. Additionally, this set supports simpler symbols created for accessible wayfinding and signage.

Skills Symbols, Typography, Poster Design

Software Adobe Illustrator

Course Marks & Symbols

Duration 5 weeks

▼ View Process

The set highlights the Waterfront's iconic and historic neighborhoods by using a gridded yet friendly visual language, encouraging Seattle residents to explore and take a walk on the newly renovated Seattle Waterfront.

Process

PROMPT

Design a cohesive symbols set based on the Seattle Waterfront.

The Waterfront Seattle project is a comprehensive redevelopment initiative aimed at transforming Seattle's central waterfront neighborhoods into a vibrant, accessible, and sustainable public space.

My assigned event was Pioneer Works' Visions of Climate Futures, as part of their Science & Society program series, and my assigned typeface was to choose any from Klim Type Foundry.

RESEARCH

I researched the significance and landmarks of each Waterfront neighborhood.

Before ideating on a symbols set, I researched what symbols already exist for each Seattle Waterfront neighborhood. It turned out, the Instagram page already had a symbols set in-use that I could reference and improve upon.

At this stage, it was also important to keep in mind the possible applications of these symbols to guide my design directions.

IDEATION

Thinking big with 3 black-and-white variations to determine direction.

I made three initial rough drafts using black and white marker by hand, showing the symbols both large (~5" square) and small (~1” square) to test scalability.

The goal was to narrow down on a visual direction for further development.

ITERATION

Developing and unifying visual structure.

To develop my symbols further as a set, I iterated how my symbols' visual structure can be made uniform by experimenting with consistent containers, different line weights, shape languages, and color palettes.

This was done alongside poster development, which responded to the application of the symbols.

At this stage, I reached a design block with each revision feeling trivial and generic, but looking to designers, such as Lucille Tenazas, gave me the inspiration to give my work its final push.

REFLECTION

I struggled the most with color and value contrast.

Much of my critique and feedback for weeks concerned my poster's lack of value contrast. However, just being able to bring something new each week helped me reach a breakthrough, discovering a working color palette.

As for application, I enjoyed the process of seeing my poster development from a simple map idea. Because Seattle is such a gridded city, it made sense for my design to embrace the grid.

Thank you to my TAs Naomi-Pleasure Park and Burke Smithers, as well as Professor Karen Cheng.