Narita Airport

Project Type: Pictograms

Project Description: This project was to learn the importance of pictograms in graphic design and visual communication, and then to create my own pictogram set. Pictograms are graphic symbols that represents objects or ideas. To understand the importance of pictograms, I recorded instances of them in my everyday life. The signage at the Chicago Union Station particularly interested me. However, these signs are fairly universal so I chose to recreate the ones for the Narita Airport in Japan. I based my signs on calligraphy to fit the Japanese theme. After sketching out the pictograms, I created them in illustrator, trying out various brush styles. Once I had gotten the icons set, I created different borders for my signs and chose a color palette. I used bold colors to make the signs visible to those traveling through an airport. Putting them on signage helped visualize what they could look like in the actual airport.

Pictograms

Process

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Mockups