For the past couple weeks, I have been working with a team of fellow designers to develop icons for elearning's introduction videos.
The audio icon will be used to represent the elearning team's use of audio to present course content to students.
I decided to use headphones for the audio icon because many students are using headphones around campus to listen to their personal music players.
The first version of the icon is featured on the top left of the diagram. Pretty simple design, and it successfully reveals the headphone concept to the viewer. However, as I was making other icons, it started to feel out of place in terms of detail. I decided to take the design even further.
A second revision is featured on the top right. More details have been added including the cord and a little design on the outside of the earpieces. The addition of the cord was really interesting, but I was having difficulties making it incorporate well with the headphones.
The third version of the audio icon is on the bottom left. The cord was still giving me trouble while I was trying to give it an overall cohesive appearance. The overall piece had the look of a smiley face actually. Cute…but not going to work.
On the bottom right of the diagram is the current revision of the headphones. The overall dynamic line work was added to match the current style of my previous icons. The headphones are now pictured inwards, which shows the padding of the earpieces rather than a simple design on the outside. The cord has been shortened tremendously, which has proven to be really successful. The idea of the cord is still there, but it is not separating the entire icon.
Cool
These icons look pretty good. If I may make a suggestion to the bottom right icon; the head-band is looking a little thin. It might be worthwhile to try adding another thin line to indicate thickness (or width). This may help provide a better sense of weight.
random opinion