Originally inspiration hit me: Carbon footprint where the toes are defined by smokestacks. I quickly doodled and created various versions of this idea, settling on this design for the final product.

The more I looked at the previous design, the more I was not satisfied. The next day I set to making the concept more visual. I decided that the smoke of the smokestacks are more organic and I would be able to shape them to convey the idea I was wanting to show. Then I thought about the main use of smokestacks, coming up with a coal power concept, leading to the lightbulb bottom for the middle design. Seeing that it just felt a little too straight forward, I decided to use implied shapes and condense the image into the final design on the end.

Taking the final evolution of the foot concept, I created a minimalist poster.

I continued to push the idea, exploring alternative styles to convey the idea. This unfinished surrealist image just wasn’t getting the feel I was going for.

Going with a balance between minimalist and realism, I wanted to take the texture of concrete and make a dirty footprint using the shapes I designed. This was the final product.