Coya – Icon set
Client: Coya
Role in project: Art director, Designer
A few years back, before Coya had even launched, the founder who is also my old manager and friend approached me about creating an icon set for the app. At this point the app was still under construction, and the graphic identity was not set in stone yet– however the feel of it was there, the playfulness and quirkiness of the identity was already evident. And so, based on this, I created an icon set that would complement the rest of the current look and feel of the app, but that is simple enough to stand the test of time should they choose to iterate on their identity and app later. We ended up with 17 delightful icons, pictured above.
The first step after deciding to go with something “simple, fun and quirky” was to create a few different concepts for the client to choose from before going into the details of each individual icon. I presented five different concepts, everything from a very basic (but still fun) concept to an illustrated concept, to a “controlled playfulness” concept.
After the client had picked their favourite concept, I sat down and started the work of detailing each icon, making sure to infuse some playfulness and delight into each and every one, while keeping usability in mind and making sure the icons feel cohesive as a set. The most important thing in the end is for the users to recognise the style and quickly be able to deduce what an icon means.
The final delivery included four variants of the icon set: Black, White, Colour and Simplified, all made to work and hold their shape for any size in the range 16-32px. I created the Simplified set in case the client wants to use the icons in a size smaller than 16px. For this set, I removed or simplified small dots and any other details that may no longer be easy to deduce or that can become kind of “fuzzy” when the icons are scaled to smaller than 16px.