UNC-CH Lab Waste Graphics
Adobe Illustrator, Print Design
Vector graphics produced for Sustainable Labs and the Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling at UNC Chapel Hill, for use in lab safety and waste sorting materials.
I developed this icon set as an intern with UNC's Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling (OWRR), in collaboration with the Sustainable Labs program, to support clear, consistent waste-sorting communication across 1.3 million square feet of campus research lab space.
Working from the waste items themselves and reference photographs, I designed each icon in Adobe Illustrator to be accurate enough representations to recognize at a glance. I also used Illustrator's 3D and Materials tools to match the style of existing North Carolina DEQ icons OWRR already uses. The result reads as a natural, recognizable extension of the labs' visual language.
The icons are intended for use in online lab training modules and printed flyers throughout campus labs.
Top Left: NC DEQ icons used. Top Right: Previous OWRR icons. Bottom: Some of the new icons developed.
Mockup of a lab recycling flyer, with the old versus with the new graphics.
Mockup of the Recycle Right lab poster, with the old versus with the new graphics.
Pipette tip box graphic artboard in Adobe Illustrator.
Reference photographs of recyclable and nonrecyclable lab waste items.