Back in 2022, I was working as a founding product designer at a biotech startup called Enable Medicine. It was still early days, and I wanted to help shape not just the product experience but the company’s visual language as a whole.

I’d always been fascinated by iconography, and I thought this would be a unique way I could inject a bit of personality into the product. The balance between form, function, and emotion in tiny symbols can appear so simple, yet make such a difference. So I thought, why not start by designing a few custom icons for our product and brand materials? That decision sent me down a path that, over a few years, would grow into a journey of joy, frustration, creative passion, and discovery; each moment of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

This is the story behind how I developed the WyDee icons collection.

Enable Medicine is a company that develops software and tooling, specifically for scientists analyzing spatial biology data. This is a field of studying cells in the context of their physical location within the tissues. By spatially mapping where cells reside and how they interact with other cells; researchers can uncover new insights into disease and push the boundaries of precision medicine.

Why does this matter? Well, while the specific details of the biology don't matter here, the key takeaway is that this company was building technology that was at the forefront of human disease research. In other words, as the founding designer, the question became “How do you capture ‘technical advancement’ visually?

As a founding designer, one of my roles is to take whatever my company’s mission is and translate that into a visual language that evokes the core values we want to live and work by.

For Enable Medicine, I started by picking a couple words I felt best represented how the company aimed to portray itself to the world:

To build consistency across this collection, I needed to establish the visual DNA of the icons. In other words, the rules that would guide visual motifs, and make the system feel unified and intentional. In iconography, seemingly small design choices can profoundly shift visual tone, so I focused on four key variables:

- Radii rules
- Visual weight
- Fill style
- Overall approach to shape/personality

To connect visual choices to brand emotion, I used the brand terms above as direct design cues:

With the first collection of icons created, I got to work ensuring every in-app icon need was met and updated. After this, I started expanding the library proactively. I wanted to anticipate future needs instead of reacting to them. Up until this point, I’d been adding icons ad hoc, but this took time and lacked any sort of strategy to build a comprehensive and scalable collection.

To begin scaling the system, I studied existing libraries like Material Icons, Coolicons, Iconic, and Untitled to benchmark pictogram coverage and expand the WyDee set accordingly.

To increase versatility, I also introduced solid counterparts for each outline icon. This was a small change that greatly expanded the application possibilities across themes and backgrounds.

These expansions and new solid style grew the library from ~300 icons to 1200+.

At some point in this journey I realized this library could – and probably should – extend beyond the Enable Medicine product and brand. I decided then that the thin and sharp appearance I’d designed for Enable Medicine should be just one configuration of the library, rather than its defining properties.

To expand the emotional range, I developed a new “soft” variant by introducing measured corner radii across each icon and its element. To do this, I established consistent radii rules to maintain structural harmony and applied them systematically.

This expanded the library to ~2,500+ icons.

To complete the spectrum of supported shape styles, I added an even more rounded variant. Since the original, sharp icons had aimed for sleek, sharp, and sophisticated, I now wanted to lean into warmth and friendliness for the super rounded variants. This would bring a sense of playfulness and approachability into the library.

Like before, I established a set of radii rules and applied them to each filled and outlined icon.

This expanded the library to ~3700+ icons.

At this point, this library was pretty extensive and I wanted to do something more interesting, so I decided to tackle a new dimension: color.

I didn’t want color to just decorate the icons. Instead, I wanted to use it as a means of communication. By lightening some areas and keeping others fully saturated, I could establish hierarchy within each icon, helping users instantly recognize what’s most important.

To achieve this, I reduced supporting or non-key visual elements to 30% opacity. Using transparency also ensures these icons can adapt to the surface color underneath. Below are a couple examples to illustrate this notion.