These examples show that quite simple motifs are used — geometric shapes and simple elements, but at the same time it turns out quite effectively and in a variety of ways. Well, let's get to work!
First, study the cheat sheet, which will help you understand exactly how different types of data can be encoded — visual attributes are used for this.

Some of them are good for quantitative variables (skill proficiency):

• Size
• Length
• Hue saturation
• Number of elements (strokes, dots)

And others are for qualitative (skill type, gender):

• Color
• Symbol
• Texture
• Form

Now let's have some fun. 3-5-9 ideas, as many as you can! You don't need to draw them in too much detail.
Take a sheet and select a place on it for 6-9 square or round icons and draw different encoding options with a thick felt-tip pen. With geometric or floral shapes, with colors or hatches, with size or symbols.

As a result, you will get several handwriting of different quality and different success. These are very valuable sketches, save them or take a picture — so you can always return to the sketches and show them to us and tell us about your project on the air.

Take a look at the different sketches from the community members. Not all of these sketches eventually became projects, but you can easily recognize many of them in our gallery.
When your sketches are ready, don't forget to share them in the Flowers and Numbers community chat!

Now that you have come up with the basic idea, you need to take a table with data from stage 1 and carefully draw a community member (for example, yourself), choosing the right encoding for the skills of the participant.

• You can draw icons by hand on a piece of paper with pens, pens, markers or paints.
• Or you can use vector graphics, work in a graphics package that is convenient for you, or in the free Figma software, which will allow you to make simple shapes without long-term training.
• If you can program, you can program the creation of graphic icons, and maybe even make them interactive. For example, Mike made the project interactive and self-updating!
• Maybe you want to knit your badges from yarn, create them from soap, candles, stained glass, metal, beads or other materials?

Create! Use what you like and what is familiar.

This routine stage requires some patience, and yet one by one we draw a new community member badge using invented rules and a legend.
If you are working with our dataset, you can visualize not all members of the community, but only the last 10, because the community is growing and it is becoming more difficult to make icons manually. Not all of us are programmers!

I hope we will soon have a way to automate the creation of simple vector badges, but for now these are just plans.

Slowly but surely, you collect all these badges in neat rows, or you can arrange them on a sheet in some specific way - sort or group them by some attribute. Arrange it neatly or randomly.

Now you need to design the title of your project and the legend, so that the reader can find out what your symbols mean. And don't forget to sign the project or specify your nickname.

Here are some examples of badges of members of the "Flowers and Numbers" community! You will find even more examples on the main page of the project!

Do not forget to send the stages of work or the completed project to the Flowers and Numbers community chat so that we can post it on the project website and write about you and your project on our social networks!

Thank you for finishing reading. Good luck to you!
If you have any questions or problems, do not hesitate to contact our chat for support!