The Planets and Constellations

Objective -  My interest in astrology prompted the idea of creating icons that would target an audience that also has the same interest in the way that shows how planets and other planets coexist with the constellations of birth months.  My goals in design were to achieve a clean and simple visual in which people could identify the different planets and the different constellations.  

Sketches - I kept my sketching to a bare minimum of simple and easy concepts that wouldn't turn into a complete drawing.  I have an interest in the constellations and planets and so I played around with that idea and drew a couple of different ideas for the planets and how the shapes would look like inside of them and I also played around with the idea of how the constellations could be included and I drew a few ideas of different ways they could look as well. 

Drafts - At first I liked the idea of the planets looking abstract, however it wasn't conveying the message to an audience that they were planets.  In my second draft I spent some time creating the planets in a way in which an audience could notice that they were planets.  I also created the constellations of the month by Zodiac sign and had them hover over the planets. I changed a lot of the colors and brightened the stars so that they were more visible compared to the first draft.  Some of the feedback I received caused me to rethink the purpose of the message I wanted to convey.  Do I want the planets or constellations to be more of a focal point?  I decided to bring down the opacity of the planets so that the constellations were more visible and the main idea in the end, and I connected the constellations instead of leaving them hovering over the planets.

Final - Each of these planet and constellation icons clearly indicate which planet and constellation they are due to the choice in simplicity, hue, repetition, alignment, and cohesion.  My audience that is interested in astrology would understand the constellations that are pared with the different months of the year and and know that there are also planets which correlate to those different characteristics which make up a zodiac sign.