By Jingyi, YIS Student
Being a dragon for twelve years has taught me a lot about YIS values and what makes us unmistakably us. When I think about good website design, the first thing I notice is the small details, like the icons that guide families through the pages. Our old icons worked, but they didn’t quite capture the spirit, creativity, and spark I associate with YIS. I wanted families to feel that uniqueness as they explore our site.
After meeting with the communications team to review the new site’s visual guidelines—colors, scale, legibility—I started brainstorming and sketching. My first attempts with minimal geometric shapes felt too generic, not reflective of YIS’s distinctive identity. So I turned to what I see in my mind when I think of YIS: a roaring dragon. I researched dragon silhouettes, refining them into clean, readable marks with the aim of incorporating our mascot into every icon.
After weeks of iteration, I created six primary icons and three contact sub-icons. My favorite is the “Dedicated Expert Facility” icon, where I merged a dragon head with the torch from our school logo. Together they symbolize the warmth and wisdom that define YIS, and show how small details can communicate who we are.
Translating pencil sketches into vector artwork in Adobe Illustrator wasn’t always smooth, some icons lost detail when scaled down, but with feedback from the communications team and plenty of tutorials, I found solutions and completed the project.
I’m grateful to have contributed something tangible to a community that’s shaped me since first grade. If these icons help a new family feel welcomed and get a sense of YIS’s personality, then this project has done exactly what I hoped.