Learning Type Iconography

• Jan 7, 2025
• Concepts, & Learning Design
• 3 minutes reading time

I wanted to bring the Learning Types to life and give them a more visual identity that extended beyond the colour scheme I've adopted for their use. The process was challenging! I dived into the Noun Project for inspiration and to explore what was on offer. While there are a few icons that I liked, nothing actually fit the bill, and what was there was a mishmash of styles, but rather than move on, I thought to myself — "I can do this", even though I never had.

While I've worked in graphic design I hadn't ever needed to create an icon set. Singular icons and logos, but never a set. So this was new territory, and something creative to get my teeth into, which I really needed.

My journey started with sketching out ideas for each of the learning types: Assimilative, Investigative, Formative, Discursive, Productive, Evaluative, and Social. I wanted to create something visual that conveyed the concept and meaning I wanted people to connect with. To be honest, I don't know how well that comes across, but I'm very happy with the result, and for a personal project, that's what counts.

That said, I did want to record what I was going for with each icon, at least for posterity's sake.

I decided to use a line-based style and something that worked at a larger size, as these would never be used for navigation or a user interface. I liked the process of trying to keep things consistent and balanced while providing a quite different visual for each type of learning.

I’ve linked some themes and concepts to visual components used throughout the set of icons to give them some consistency and overlap through a shared visual language.

• Circles – I’ve used circles to convey where knowledge lies. In some cases, they represent individuals; in others, they represent spaces.
• Dots - These represent knowledge. In some cases, it is the knowledge that individuals already possess - and so is shaped by that; in other cases, it resides within the space.
• Diagonals Represent the space for learning, often indicating where it occurs. I like the sense of movement and activity these provide, which helps capture the dynamic nature of learning.

The Icons

Assimilative

The aim was to capture the merging of new information with what already exists. The crossover point, the diagonal lines, was key to trying to capture the process of assimilation of new information with existing knowledge.

Investigative

Here, I wanted to capture the act of seeking and finding, so this icon was formed by trying to convey possibilities and pathways. While there is a defined path, there are also options to explore.

Formative

I wanted to capture the idea of taking oneself into a new space. Sure, there is a blank canvas there, but also a sense of wholeness moving into it. We take what we are and know into something new through the act of trying.

Discursive

The point here was about sharing perspectives. The circles here are the individual - opposites to each other but share the same conversation and discussion in the centre - the vertical lines.

Productive

This one is obvious, but making and growing something is how I envision this kind of learning. Growing from the seed of knowledge already developed, the learning comes from the branching and unfurling of new leaves.

Evaluative

This kind of learning is focused on feedback and reflection, so the imagery tries to do that by comparing two states. Rather than going for a tickbox, the idea here was to capture change - not correctness and to illustrate that through a reflection of the two states.

Social

In this icon, I wanted to visualise a shared learning space and that the knowledge exists within the space rather than the individual. Here, the crosses represent individuals with different orientations and perspectives, but they each contribute to the shared and accessible knowledge at the centre.

• Tim Klapdor
• Adelaide, Australia
• posts, & LearningTypes