😈 The Evolution of the humdrum Icon

9 November 2023 design

The origin of the name “humdrum” isn’t that interesting. It basically came from a personal blog I started with the tongue-in-cheek URL “humdrum.life” (inspired by h0p3’s now defunct “philosopher.life”). Eventually I just changed my username across the web to humdrum over a previous name that slightly hinted at my last name in order to be a bit more pseudonymous on the interwebs…

What’s more interesting to me is the evolution of the icon/profile image I’ve used under the moniker “humdrum”.

It started with this design I made back in 2020, inspired by the ambient music podcast Warren Ellis used to put out. I actually sent it to him to use if he wanted, but never heard back. The design originally had “SPEKTRMODULE” written across the bottom, but I obviously removed that.

I ended up using it for three years before the AI image tool boom happened and I realized I could use it to iterate on my designs. So I fed Midjourney the image above and asked for a modern designed logo, resulting in this short-lived profile picture.

Shortly after that, I tried to see if I could have it make a “person” from the original design. This resulted in something I really enjoyed and I had it make all sorts of creatures and monsters, using my original design as a sort of template. It was a ton of fun.

Then a bunch of people on Mastodon started getting profile pictures of themselves designed by Andy Carolan in his very fun avatar style. I figured I’d see if he’d be up for something a little bit different, turning the AI-designed character, based on my original design, into one of his avatars. Safe to say he absolutely delivered.

I used that one for about six months before I decided he could use a refresh. So I reached out to Andy again with a couple requests and once again he turned something around that is out of this world. Some of his best work, if I say so myself. Looking at it now, it actually feels like a perfect version for winter with the hood, goggles, and bigger beard.

Andy’s already working on another one based on my real appearance, but I’m not quite sure what I’ll do with that.

He doesn’t know it yet, but I plan on asking him to make many more variants of humdrum for different seasons and holidays…