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February 10th, 2012
Join The Noun Project at Cree and Help Create New Symbols for Energy Efficiency
The last straw was when I bought a book of “Go Green” Forever stamps at the U.S. Post Office and noticed the “use efficient light bulbs” stamp featured a hand holding a swirly CFL.
For us LED lighting geeks, it’s painful to see the twisty CFL icon used as the symbol for energy-efficient lighting because it’s not as efficient as LED lighting and it contains mercury. So when I saw that postage stamp, I vowed to find a way to create a universal symbol for the energy-efficient LED light bulb.
Meet The Noun Project
That’s how I came across The Noun Project, a free online visual dictionary of symbols and icons that can be downloaded by anyone for anything. The Noun Project co-founders agree that it’s time to create a new symbol for LED lighting, as well as symbols for other recent developments in energy-efficiency. So they’re coming to Cree in Durham, NC on Feb. 25, to lead a free collaborative workshop called an “Iconathon.” And you’re invited, but space is limited, so RSVP here.
At the end of the workshop, we’ll have the basis of a new symbol for LED lighting and other important energy-saving technologies such as solar panels, weatherized homes and wind turbines. The final symbols will be made available for public download on TheNounProject.com.
All Ideas Welcome
And you can participate even if you’re not a great artist! If you want to get a feel for how a room full of people can turn ideas into symbols, take a look at these awesome photos of the evolution of the “bully” symbol from an Iconathon in 2011.
Help Create New Symbols
The Iconathon for Energy Efficiency is a great opportunity to collaborate and network while helping evolve the world’s visual language. I think this Noun Project blog post summarizes the need for a new symbol for LED lighting nicely. And also explains
“What’s amazing is that the incandescent light bulb has been around for 132 years, and yet whenever we need to symbolically represent “new” ideas, we still use the old bulb as the go-to symbol (we’ve been guilty of this many times). But just think of all the innovative strides that have been made in the past 132 years. Take, for example, the telephone. If you go through the list of symbols for telephone on our site, you can see a beautiful progression from the candlestick telephone, to the behemoth first portable phones, to finally the new slender and compact iPhones. Although there may not be so many drastic progressions for the light bulb, one of the symbols we want to design during this Energy Efficiency workshop is a new symbol for LED light – the most energy-efficient lighting to date (about 85% more efficient than incandescent bulbs and mercury-free unlike CFL’s). How amazing would it be if this new symbol became the “it” symbol for new ideas, progressive thinking, and of course – light, just like the original incandescent light bulb has been for over 100 years?!
Think about how many other symbols we’re lacking that could represent the recent developments in Energy Efficiency. Can you visualize a symbol for solar farms, weatherized homes, or wind turbines? These technologies are so new, there just aren’t any easily-recognized symbols for them yet. And we want to change that.”
You can help. Register for the Feb. 25 Iconathon at Cree!
Or if you can’t attend, send us your recommendations of energy-efficient symbols we should create.
12 Responses to “Join The Noun Project at Cree and Help Create New Symbols for Energy Efficiency”
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Love the postage stamp. Shame it features a CFL. I think we really need a symbol to represent LEDs. Everyone recognises the halogen bulb and I think most recognise a CFL too. Who do we send our attempts to? Feel free to email me.
Hi – have just stumbled across your Noun Project and have a great idea on how to generate hundreds of designs via crowdsourcing, but would like to know whether there is still an opportunity to participate?
Hi Nicole,
We’ve already completed the Iconathon. However, if you’d like additional information, please feel free to write us: http://www.creeledrevolution.com/contact
Thanks,
Ginny
[...] symbols were created as part of the 2012 Iconathon for Energy Efficiency. They are available for public download just in time for Earth Day. You can download them [...]
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