The goal was to create a high quality Icon set, that was done in my own style, yet still easily recognizable. I love camping and backpacking, and have enjoyed this hobby from a young age. My goal with these icons was to provide something that was usable to share a light and happy feel around the camping and backpacking topic. Here is the final product:

The sketching process started a few weeks before I began on the vector based graphic version of the icons. I really like the idea of the butane backpacking stove, so I did multiple versions of the stove and the butane canisters. In the sketching process I did my best to just to always have my sketchbook with me so when I had a few ideas come to my head I could sketch them out immediately. Icons that came from this example were the headlamp and different variations of the water bottle.

When it came time to create the vector based graphics I started with the butane stove. This was the first icon so it was the one that helped set the rules of the icon set. I developed a stroke weight rule right off the start where any outer stroke would have a weight of 2pt. And the interior stroke would be weighted at 1pt or less varying on the details required. I started off with pastel colors. With the goal to keep the colors bright and soft to help accomplish my overall goal for the set. After the base was created and the colors were added I experimented with shadows and created the rule that the light source was on the right side of all the icons( except for the campfire, more on that later). The shadows would vary in size and thickness depending on how round the objects were and where they were on the left if the icon.

After some critiques by mentors and colleagues I changed a few aspects and rules on my original 6 icons. I shifted from a dark black stroke around and inside my icons, to a stroke that was a darker color value of the fill color. This made my icons flow much better and removed some awkward pinch points in each icon.

From these critiques I also removed some of the excessive details in my butane stove and the stickers on my water bottle. I also decided to increase the weight of the shadows in objects that were more rounded, so that they would be more recognizable, as one review mistook my water bottle for a lighter.

The campfire icon was one that I had sketched out multiple times trying to get a design I liked. The final icon wasn't too similar to the sketches I had done, since the rules had changed a few times before I started this icon. The campfire broke a few rules on purpose because it was not going to have similar shadows, because it is a light source. So with the stroke of the fire I chose a lighter color value to create that light emitting feel. I also added an opaque red stroke to the tops of the rocks surrounding the fire to show this "emmitance" of light. 

As I progressed towards the end of the project I was working on my last few icons. I designed a marshmallow poker and a fishing pole, however as I began to arrange all. If my icons, these two in specific looked very out of place. They were not thick enough and the details were too extreme in comparison to the rest of the set. I went back to my drafts and my sketches to see what I might be able to improve upon and what icons followed the theme and rules of my set that I could now add. 

In the end I chose the tent and the sleeping bag. Originally I had scrapped the idea of these larger objects because I wanted to make each icon realistically scaled to one another. However I scaled each icon equally using a 2 inch by 2 inch guide box to create equally sized icons.

Lastly I arranged my icons on a 3X4 grid with each of the icons in similar color value on the same row horizontally. Using the arranging features in Adobe illustrator I was able to arrange them equally in space with one another.

I designed a simple header to show the theme of the icons titled "Let's Go Camping!"

With trees in the background following the similar icon rules as below. This header contrasts the rest of the set because it uses different grays and the color green which was not used in any of the icons.

The final product achieves my goal of creating easily recognizable icons that follow the camping and backpacking theme. The simple designs and the warm color values that were used generate the feel that accomplishes my goal. Out of 184 individuals that viewed the icon set, 78% were able to recognize all of the icons in the set.