1

I'm trying (and failing) to create a circular Twitter-like bird. Any advice appreciated.

almost 7 years ago from

I've been working on this - an icon for my new iOS app, for a couple of days, but just can't seem to make it work.

The concept is a circular speech bubble with a pointer, which is also a Twitter-like bird, with the speech bubble pointer being the beak.

Here's how my design is looking right now:

http://i.imgur.com/X6FMWZi.png

I think I've been staring/studying it for too long, and I've lost track of what doesn't look right about it.

Any advice on how I could improve it is appreciated.

6 comments

  • Rachel MerskyRachel Mersky, almost 7 years ago

    I think it's worth trying different shapes for the beak, perhaps something a bit less curvy? It reads a bit 'pointy-nosed dude with a combover' to me, so I'd angle the beak up a bit, and rotate the wings accordingly (as James shows in his example).

    I think cutting into the shape of the circle a bit to define the shape of the wings will help them read more as wings.

    I know you want it to be a circle, but I also think it's worth trying out making it more S/swoop shaped, with the tail of the speech bubble forming the tail of the bird, and adding in another point for the beak as well. This will make the speech bubble thing a bit clearer by not modifying the orientation, and give you another defining element to help the 'bird' thing read easier.

    I hope this wasn't confusing!

    1 point
  • James LaneJames Lane, almost 7 years ago

    Andy, I think it's either the angle that you've started the wings, or the rotation of what would be the beak if that makes sense?

    But then I get that the beak would need to be there to make it a speech bubble. Check this to see what I mean...

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ddgdigguuxup3fl/AAAMhtKf2j88mQUQFf2WpMPJa?dl=0

    1 point
  • Corin EdwardsCorin Edwards, almost 7 years ago

    It's got no eyes or wings so there's no reference point to know that the speech bubble's tail is a beak.

    0 points