Initial Pictogram sketches

To start creating my pictograms I gathered relevant pictures for inspiration on my starting point. I began with Briggate. 

The pictures I gathered were from the Victorian period, including illustrations and photographs.

In my initial experimentation I created a few variations upon the origin of the name Briggate (road to the bridge) in different styles. I also created a pictogram to portray a shopping street but felt that the name idea worked better, as it would be more relevant to a rebus puzzle. Taking inspiration from the Victorian style of illustration and creating sketchy pictures did not work well in my opinion. I experimented with a more modern style of illustration using block shapes (top right of below right page) but this didn't suit my project either. 

From here I looked back upon my research into Victorian Illustration to get inspired and was immediately drawn to the emblems created by Walter Crane.

 

I was inspired to create pictograms in this style instead of purely just illustrations of relevant objects. I think this method will give me a more consistent way finding system with all symbols different but contained within the same (or potentially similar) shape. These will make it easy to identify the signs as within the same system.

Beginning to create emblem style pictograms instead of stand alone illustrations proved to work better in terms of the system seeming stronger and having a more confident style already. Once again I attempted to incorporate the Victorian style illustration within the emblems and it worked better but the sketchy style looks a bit scruffy in my opinion. In contrast, the simpler symbols to the left look bolder and more confident - but do not fit as well with the period. I aim to try and mesh the 2 styles, and perhaps produce pictograms in a cleaner version of the Victorian illustration style.