Let There Be Light.

Mother Jones Icons.

I illustrate icons all the time. I work in a variety of styles and the most recent request came from "Mother Jones Magazine." The article was all about the environment and making green choices.

Apparently "350" is a good carbon footprint number? They wanted a speedometer for this concept. Sometimes clients give me the raw information and want me to come up with the visual and other times, like this project I just draw upon their request.

The scale was to represent weighing options and the original light bulb was for smart ideas. When they asked me to draw a regular light bulb I immediately thought "That is kind of ironic since this is suppose to be a green article?" But I figured they must have a reason so I didn't bring it up with them.

I delivered the final art and a few days later the client requested a compact fluorescent bulb to replace the original one I had done. Icons are suppose to be simple and many icons still use symbolic images that technically are no longer visually accurate to current technology. For example the "Phone" icon on an iPhone, it's a classic dial up variety.

The original light bulb is one of the true classics in the world of icons, but in this context it became problematic due to the theme of the article. I've always wondered how long it'll take before old technology symbols no longer resonate with the public at large. Maybe never?

The incandescent light bulb may not be politically correct to use anymore but it'll always trump the compact fluorescent bulb when it comes to clearly communicating an idea in an iconic form.