Icons for Millbrook Marsh Nature Center
I am a member of the GeoGraphics Lab at Penn State, which frequently takes on client projects for community groups. The lab received a large grant from the Hamer Foundation to develop maps for Millbrook Marsh, a local nature center. Almost every student in GeoGraphics has played a role in this project. I have primarily served as a mentor to junior members of the lab with regard to this project. However, I assisted with developing animal icons for this project.
The lab has taken multiple visits to Millbrook to get a feel for the area. On one visit, I noticed a wall of animals and plants painted primarily by children. To create a connection between this existing artwork at Millbrook and the maps, I decided to create animal icons to use in collaboration with the map based on these paintings. The animals are printed separate from the maps, for educators to use with any map.
To make these icons, I began by using the “Image Trace” feature in Adobe Illustrator to vectorize the images. This gave me a starting point for the design, where I cleaned up each animal or plant around the edges and edited smaller features that Image Trace had a difficult time with. I also color-corrected some of the images to make them more realistic than the colors chosen by the children. Community members have complimented these icons for having a style that evokes the work of Eric Carle.
