Symbol Design

Objective: As part of a class assignment, we had to design a symbol to represent a theme chosen at random.

My theme: Amelia Earhart

Visual Research, Mind mapping, & Sketches

Earhart was not only an aviation pioneer, but a fearless leader who paved the way in various avenues such as fashion, education, and women’s activism. I learned that Earhart developed her own clothing line and was often seen wearing a scarf (for fashion and flight purposes), so I wanted to incorporate this element into my design.

Initial sketches

Initial sketches of scarf designs, planes, different perspectives of a pilot hats and goggles to symbolize a pilot identity.

Part 1: Putting it together

Feedback was given to incorporate a pilot hat and goggles with the main parts of a scarf to depict the propellers of a plane.

Design elements include:

Plane wings.
2 pronged arrows and circles as a decorative element seen on Earhart’s first plane.
A directional compass arrow as flying involves using navigational tools to arrive at destinations.

Incorporating colour

I experimented with various colour combinations and finalized with black & purple. Black paired best with purple, but also representative of pilot hats. Purple was chosen as a colour to symbolize women’s activism. Earhart embodied this initiative: promoting equal rights, rejecting social norms, and advocating for women.