JULIA
PROKIPCAK
PROKIPCAK
I created this icon design in 2018 as a first year in the Graphic Design program at Algonquin College. We were randomly assigned characters, historical figures and monsters to create an icon for. The name I drew was Maximus Decimus Meridius, The Gladiator. The final submission for the original project was a black ink drawing of the icon and a construction paper cut-out of the colour version, this was later expanded on to create a final vector graphic version.
Immediately after receiving my character name I began to research, I had never heard of Maximus Decimus Meridius before but I was excited to start designing. After reading a few webpages I rented the movie Gladiator and started to make notes and sketches. After finishing the movie I made a mind map to organize important elements of the story, common themes and visuals that I could use to start working on the icon.
After finishing my research I began sketching different ideas and pieces of the story to give myself more ideas. I wanted to depict the gladiator in a simple way while still telling his story. I drew some gladiator helmets, then I tried to create an image with his sword through a gold leaf crown but it looked awkward and took up a lot of vertical space. I knew I only wanted to include a closer crop on the gladiator but the main challenge was figuring out how end the bottom of the drawing without simply slicing him in half below the torso. Eventually I came to the final concept, the gladiator, broken and shadowed with no facial features, two swords cross in front and the shape of the coliseum in the background.
Drawing the final version and cutting out the coloured copy was challenging, I like to make my work perfect however once you draw in pen theres no going back. I was pretty happy when we were given the chance to create a digital copy of the logo, I also took this as a chance to change up the colours to fit better with my theme.
