INCLUSIVITY WEEK
“As a company with more than 20,000 employees representing 140 nationalities on 131 sites worldwide, Dassault Systèmes is committed to maintaining a diverse workforce and inclusive environment in which truly disruptive innovations can be imagined and delivered.”
DESCRIPTION
To represent the EURONORTH 5 Pillars of Diversity: Gender, Identity, LGBTQ+, Disability and Generations, I was asked to design an icon for both the EURONORTH Inclusivity Week and the Diversity & Belonging Community which holds all kind of events / activities associated with inclusivity and belonging.
BREAKDOWN
01 HORIZONTAL DESIGN - THUMBNAILS
First, I started by creating some thumbnails based on the initial brief I got from the EURONORTH team. I usually take inspiration from existing designs to then think more out of the box and come up with some crazy designs. For this icon, I first tried to include different shapes within one big shape to represent all of the LGBTQ+ elements. As a second option, I followed the path of designing something which resembles the abbreviation of the icon name: D I B. I also was on the lookout to include things which we all of have in common such as our world and fingerprints. Overall, I ended up with organic feeling designs.
02 VERTICAL DESIGN - DIGITAL DESIGN AND ITERATION
Next, I designed the selected thumbnails digitally. This selection was made together with the team during one of the presentations I hosted. I really enjoy taking the time to present and discuss each step of the way with the (internal) client. Although it is a longer approach then simply “design and deliver”, it usually outputs a design which has a way richer background story. So, I think it is very important to include the client during the whole process, to regularly update on the latest status and more importantly to steer them in the right direction.
The team quite liked all of the designs and ended up a team of four selected designs. In addition to the icon shape, I also proposed the design for the title. This design was an immediate hit with the team and did not change during the next steps - apart for some slight touch ups.
03 COLOR AND SHADING
Once a final digital design has been selected, it is time to shade and add some colors. Usually, I first take on shading to then try multiple color options afterwards. In this case, I was inspired by Dutch designer Rick Oostenbroek as his designs are very vibrant and colorful.
To add a similar visual language to my design, I opted to use gradient mesh in Adobe Illustrator. It is a nice tool to mimic a 3D effect on to your 2D designs while also having the freedom of iterating colors. It namely applies a mesh (object) on to each converted shape and uses points to which colors are assigned to. A neat trick is to apply a color palette to the entire shape to easily iterate different color options.
As you can see above, I created 6 shade options for each of the four selected icon designs. Each option mimics a different light condition and material property. Ranging from soft to harsh reflections to resemble soft plastic to shiny chrome.
Next, I applied multiple color palettes to one of the selected shading options. The Diversity & Belonging team wanted to have a very colorful icon design which is not an easy task as the design still needs to feel as a whole while having multiple colors close to each other.
The team and I selected one of the color options on which I further iterated on. Eventually, it was decided to stick with initial iteration.
04 FINAL OUTPUT
This is the final output for which I created three variants. Some added details: flares and flake effect on the 3D shapes.
05 BONUS - INCLUSIVITY WEEK
To represent the Rainbow Network, a different group under the Diversity & Belonging umbrella, it was requested to add an additional iteration based on the original icon. The brief was to include the rainbow colors for which I first iterated in Illustrator and then later settled on adding a literal rainbow in Photoshop as an overlay. The latter has a more clear representation of the rainbow compared to simply blending the colors in the shape like I did in the first step. The Rainbow Network specifically focuses on LGBT+ inclusion for EURONORTH. Hence the rainbow colors are a signifier of the LGBTQ+ community through the Pride Flag.