PathCAN
Client:
PathCAN
Category:
User-Interfaced Design
|
Icon Design
Year:
2026
PathCAN is an AI-driven platform that empowers international students to succeed in their studies in Canada. This project aims to develop an engaging roll-up poster to attract new clients interested in partnering for the PathCAN booth at the Vietnamese Lunar New Year festival in Toronto.
CONCEPT
The icons I developed are inspired by PathCAN’s Letter from Our Heart. In the letter, PathCAN carries two meanings: "Path" is the journey, and "CAN" is a dual reference to the confidence the brand wants students to feel – being able to say "I can,” and Canada. These meanings strongly shaped my final decision: I let the line stay incomplete rather than closing it off, so the design invites the viewer in instead of finishing the thought for them. The unfinished line is the path not yet walked, which is left for students to initiate that journey.
PROCESS
A range of sketches focuses on balancing minimalist icons that are easily recognizable, corporate style and incorporating a unique spin on familiar icon design. These explorations demostrates how far icons and shapes can be simplify before it stopped reading clearly. It took trial and error to move from a standard logo approach to a distinctive visual style inspired by one-line drawing, an effect that is strengthened when the line is left unconnected.
FINAL
Every icon is designed from a single continuous line. The idea is that the viewer completes — small metaphor for students carving their own path to their future. The design uses PathCAN's two brand colours with blue as the base and red as the highlight, so it interrupts the palette just enough to create visual interest while staying on brand. Paired with the one-line drawing, the colour choices reinforce a design that's minimal and corporate on the surface, but personal and open-ended underneath.
Ultimately, I developed a set of 10 icons that help students easily navigate the platform and open tabs to further information. More than just wayfinding, each icon carries the same idea that the student creates their own path because they can.
