Birds, Birds, Everywhere

I have been thinking about my college years lately—my roots in design. My first assignment in Visual Communication was to create 400 bird symbols in about 36 hours, which seemed like an overwhelming about of work. And it was. It was training to kick our skills into high gear. 400 doesn't sound so overwhelming as it did then. Most logos take more than 400 sketches to find out, which is truly the right one (even if it was the first sketch.)

Bird icons are everywhere: from airlines to restaurants to clothing to organizations. The most popular bird symbol seems to be the Eagle (at least in American Design). Our national bird is an Eagle and has become a secondary symbol of the United States. Companies that incorporate Americana into their brand tend to include flags, the colors, or this majestic bird. Even with this singular animal there are a large variety of ways to translate birds to paper, businesses, and products.

I am tempted to reopen this product and examine how I would do this project all over again, and what would be my results—but maybe with a different animal.

I don't think I am over the birds project yet

 Some of these birds are famous while others can be found: 1, 2, 3, 4