This project was a blast to work on! It certainly took some time and patience, but I'm thrilled with the final results. I started out wanting to create a set of 12 icons with an ocean theme at the center. My target audience for this particular project was bright fun people with a love for the happy quirky aspects of life. I wanted my designs to make people smile or chuckle.

I started out with some initial sketches depicting different ideas and concepts I wanted to include in each icon. You'll notice that each sketch started with a circle. I strived to keep a theme of round circular shapes for this project to unify the set. To keep my ocean theme I sketched numerous ocean creatures! Some ended up in my final design, while others sadly got the boot. 

**You'll notice the little person in a swimming suit (sketch 30) got the boot!​​​​​​​

As I started creating the icons in illustrator I was left with a lot of difficult decisions. One of these was rather or not I should include a black stroke on each of the icons. After creating a poll on my social media and getting numerous opinions, I decided on keep the stroke! Many people felt that both looked great, but that the stroke helped to add some extra definition. Instead of making it black I chose to use a darker value of the focus blue and orange colors I finalized for the color scheme. I also added drop shadows to help each icon pop off the page!

In the end, I feel that my final project truly speaks to those who have a happy fun outlook on life! The icons are bright, humorous, fun, and colorful. Their simple design helps viewers to focus on the important aspects of each icon.