Sensible World

Symboliconographogram

We love to design symbols. Be they pictograms (or pictographs), icons or logos, we can’t seem to get enough. The challenge inherent in condensing a thought, phrase or direction into a single image is lovely. It’s also fun. Add to that the need to keep a set of symbols stylistically similar and you’ve got yourself a romping good time – at least from our point of view.

In addition to the logos that we have designed, Sensible World has (so far) designed two custom symbol sets: Block and Retro Weather. These were built completely from the ground up and each had their own sets of challenges.

Block Symbols

Our Block Symbols were originally designed as part of the Addison County Chamber of Commerce’s website. Specifically, we used them to add visual cues to menu items. Since the launch of the website, we’ve worked with the Chamber on a number of other tourism-related materials and created new symbols as needed. While the original set encompassed only general categories (shopping, dining, etc), the added items focused on more specific services (auto-repair, construction, etc). We’ve fallen in love with this set and use it whenever appropriate, creating new symbols as needed.

What makes this set unique (at least in our minds) is that each symbol is built to a strict square proportion. While this has proved useful in a number of applications, it has been a godsend when designing wayfinding signs – where standard sign blade layout and sizes are key. We can easily create a swappable sign template without worry of the symbol exceeding its allotted area.

Each symbol is vector-based and was created at 3/4″ x 3/4″. This size was chosen a bit arbitrarily, but has worked out well. It’s small enough to avoid unnecessary detail, and large enough to be creative. It may seem that a symbol whose final size is 5″ x 5″ (sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller) has plenty of room for detail, but when you consider that it needs to be recognizable from moving car (at varying speeds), simplicity wins out.

Block Symbols →

Retro Weather

The problem seemed simple enough to solve. We needed some weather icons to include on a website for a new widget. Turns out we didn’t care much for the free (or even most commercially-available) sets out there. Not that they were all bad, they just didn’t fit the simplicity of the site we were designing. Too many had unnecessary gradients or shadows or gloss or detail. So we designed our own.

Why we call these icons “retro” is a bit beyond me, but there you go. It’s a name that, for one reason or another, has stuck.

Retro Weather Icons →

Our ultimate plan is to release these sets into the wild, but we’re still mulling over the best way to do so. If you have an idea, give us a holler on Twitter.

Hey There, It’s a New Website!

Welcome to the new Sensible World website. It’s been a long time coming. Look at it this way, website years are like dog years. That makes the last iteration of the Sensible World website over 28 years old. On Ye Olde Information Super-Highway, that’s absolutely ancient. The old design served us well, but the time has come for a change.

Why Now?

The old website was bloated with text, a pain to update and lacked a bit on the personality front. The design was certainly clean, but it, well, wasn’t us. Four years later, we know that bit for sure. We’ve grown as a company and have a better understanding of who we are, how we design and what makes us happy. The new design is a bit more down to earth and gives us the flexibility to highlight our projects. We’ve toned down the bloat (only one page about our company, not six) and given more weight to our work samples.

Moving Target

The first draft of this new design was completed over 6 months ago. Our hope was to have it live by January 1st. But then a funny thing happened. We got busy. And as often happens with creatives, our design needs were pushed to the back of the queue.

Since then we’ve been chipping away at the new design during our few free moments. And here’s the thing: the new design isn’t finished yet. We’ve only uploaded a small portion of our portfolio. There are sure to be coding glitches. Regardless, we’ve decided to hit the “go” button. If not, we’ll continue – ad infinitum – to find reasons to delay the launch. We’re biting the bullet and will change things as we go. Bear with us!

And so, without further ado, goodbye old site, hello new. We’re psyched.