process: ways the world can end symbols

In choosing a topic from which to create a set of symbols, I wanted something more complex than an easily simplified set of existing objects. I also wanted a topic that would keep me interested, and have an element of hilarity. I picked “ways the world can end” because it fulfilled these criteria and gave me the potential to have fun with visual metaphor.

Here’s some sketches, starting with the initial narrowing of content and media explorations.

About here I realized that I needed to narrow my sketches according to which are the “fastest read.” For example, aliens destroying the earth is more immediately understood than nuclear hadron collider disaster (see below).

Moving on to the computer, I added a few variations that didn’t make it into the final set. As you can see below, the sun punching the earth and the earth melting were conflicting in content, both reading as “global warming,” so I picked the more active of the two. Also, the apple core didn’t read “humans depleting earth’s resources” as quickly as I wanted, so it too was scrapped.

Here’s the final set. From the top: aliens take over earth, the sun explodes, black hole, nuclear warfare, robot apocalypse, and divine intervention.

Stay tuned for part II of this project: how these symbols exist in the real world!