Seattle ReCreative is a non-profit organization which advocates for creative reuse and art education. Their storefront in Greenwood sells a wide variety of materials donated by community members, and this symbol set was created to celebrate and showcase some of these items.
Organized chaos
Part of Seattle ReCreative’s charm is their ever-changing treasure-hunt-like shopping experience. They recieve their stock via donations from the community, so their offerings differ from week to week. This symbol set primarily provides a strong organizational system that helps them price and sort donations, and helps shoppers find what they need. Each symbol represents a category of art supplies which can be applied to stamps, stickers, signage, and more to help keep the store organized while maintaining their signature quirky style.
Bold brand expression
Aside from organization, the symbols represent Seattle ReCreative’s brand as a whole with bold angular shapes that stand out amongst the clutter.
Fun, yet functional
We created two versions of the set; a two color version to help legibility at smaller sizes, and a one color version for a bigger impact at bigger sizes.
Categories from left to right: Sewing, Pens + Ink, Office Supplies, Ceramics + Sculpture, Frames + Artwork, Paper Goods, Miscellaneous, Fiber Arts, Ephemera + Stationary, Drawing, Jewelry + Beading, Painting
How might we design a symbol set which is highly functional yet matches Seattle ReCreative’s playful messy energy?
To begin, we visited Seattle ReCreative to gain inspiration for the symbols, and took note of which materials they had in their store. Based on what we saw, we created twelve categories into which supplies could be sorted, and sketched some initial ideas.
In Procreate, we began experimenting with style, and making some initial decisions about the direction of the symbols. We aimed to preserve the fun and unique qualities of the store, while making the symbols easily recognizable and very versatile.
While making our final refinements, we created many poster iterations to display the symbols. The final solution is a playful and colourful poster, which emphasizes the store's mission, while showing off our final symbols.