Symbols


Art Appreciation
 STUDY OF SYMBOLS

SYMBOL – an alphabet human thought

that conveys messages without spoken or
written words.
Clarification of Symbol Terms

Pictogram – an image that represents an object. “visual language” able to be understood

regardless of one's native language or degree of literacy.
Chinese is composed entirely
of pictograms, a system of
writing used by more than
any other in the world(About
1 billion Chinese speakers
compared to 350 million
English speakers).
Ideogram is a character
or symbol representing
a complete idea or
concept.
Rebus is a pictorial
image that represents a
spoken sound.
Phonogram refers to a
symbol that represents a
spoken sound
A logogram represents more
than a sound — it represents
an entire word or idea.
AEI
Logograms are commonly
called ideograms.
Graphic designers tend to
OU
use the term logo
interchangeably to cover
most visual marks —
logotypes, trademarks and ABNKKBSNPLAK
symbols.
O
Logotype
means a symbol
comprised entirely
of typography
Printer's devices (symbols)
were used to identify the
printer or publisher of a
book. Many early printers
used the combination of the
orb and the cross, a signifier
of the earth and Christianity.

Johannes de Colonia of Venice

An often duplicated printer's
mark of the anchor and dolphin
(reflecting the motto, Make Haste
Slowly) originated with the
master printer Aldus Manutius,
who started his famous Aldine
Press in Venice in 1494.
Fameorshame press. He explains the
myriad of reasons for the mark, "The
Fameorshame mark is based on the orb and
four, a traditional sign used by some early
printers. A related sign the orb and cross—
literally the earth surmounted by the
cross—is also the alchemical symbol for
antimony, an ingredient in type metal. Long
before the development of printing, the 4
had been a mark of merchants to identify
their wares. In The Book of Signs, Koch
provides an illustration of a 4 being
represented in a medieval monogram for
the Christian name Paul."
Watermarks are decorative
images embedded into the
fibers of paper during the
production process. The image
can be a simple outline, text or
elaborate images with gradient
tones. The use of watermarks
persists today in paper of fine
quality. The term has been
adopted in the digital age for
marks embedded into an image
file for security.
Coat of Arms &
Family Crest
The origin of “a coat of
arms” came from the
symbols displayed on the
crest of a helmet or metal
chest armor to help
identify soldiers in battle
or jousting matches.
Monogram Greek for “single line.”
In early European kingdoms
illiterate monarchs signed
documents with custom
monograms. Today a designer's
monogram can increase the status to
an everyday object and add value to
the price. A purse, a screensaver, etc.
Corporate Symbols Trademarks can be used alone or combined into
configurations. These are the common
terminologies used for elements:

Trademarks If the identifier is strictly type = logotype or

wordmark.

During the Middle Ages European trade guilds If only an image = symbol, logo or trademark.
began using marks to identify the origin and content If a combination of symbol and logotype= signature.
of their products. The term “hallmark” comes from
the identification marks that metal artisans stamped
into metal when exhibiting wares in the guild hall in
London.

trademarks were used by large companies who

shipped their products farther afield. These
corporate trademarks transported the reputations
and standards of quality of their makers.
TEAM ISOTYPE : Otto Neurath, Marie Neurath and Gerd Arntz

{
ISOTYPE system was born from research and theories of Otto Neurath (1882–1945), a Viennese philosopher, economist and
social scientist. As a child he was fascinated by the function of Egyptian hieroglyphics—their forms and ability to communicate
a story. This early influence was integrated into his life's work, the development of a system to pictorially organize statistics.

In 1925 Neurath, while head of a housing museum, initiated The Social and Economic Museum of Vienna. The museum's
purpose was to educate the general public about post-war housing by creating displays of social information. The new venue
afforded him an opportunity to showcase his intellectual and educational ideals using his symbol-based language — an
alternative to written language.
TEAM ISOTYPE : Otto Neurath, Marie Neurath and Gerd Arntz
Visual education was always the prime motive behind
ISOTYPE. It was not intended to replace verbal language,
rather it was a “helping language” accompanied by verbal
elements.
Neurath was deeply convinced that his "world language
without words" would not only enhance education but
facilitate international understanding.

{
The ISOTYPE team, interrupted by Austrian political upheaval in 1934, moved
to The Hague in The Netherlands. By 1935 the team had created a name for their
new symbol language, ISOTYPE.
Otl Aicher Munich Olympic
Grid
Otl Aicher (1922-1991) designed
modernist modular symbols and then
combined them into unequivocally
clear language systems.
Büro Aicher, created symbol systems
for large corporations such as Braun
and Lufthansa. Most notably Aicher
and his team devised the landmark
Munich Olympics symbol / grid
system.
Aicher's symbols appeared on 2,600 signs and numerous
printed materials. Complicated information, such as event
timetables, were simplified by the use of easily identifiable
pictograms, bright colors and Univers 55. (Echoed later in
the LA Olympics of 1984)
 Henry Dreyfuss (1904-1972)
Self-taught, intelligent and methodical, industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss was unique
in considering the relationship between the manufacturer, the designer and the
consumer. Usability and practicality were as important (or more so) then styling in his
design process.
AIGA & The US DOT System

Dreyfuss was elected as the first president of the

Digital Symbols
Industrial Design Society of America, IDSA.
Initially a committee studied and standardized Pioneers
dozens of symbols which were assigned to
designers Roger Cook & Don Shanosky for final
execution.

To ensure the widespread adoption of this system

the DOT offered the symbols copyright free.
Apple
Apple cofounder Steve Jobs's only
direction to designer Rob Jannof
was "don't make it cute." Jannof
designed two versions, one with
and one without the bite—
suggesting the bite for scale so the
apple would not be confused
with a cherry. Only later did he
learn the computer term "byte."

The original logo was released in

1977 with color stripes to to
broadcast that Macs had color
screens, the first for personal
computers. Landor & Associates
made updates in the 1980's
Susan Kare, Mac Icons
“The visual language of point-and-
click computing came to life from
the imagination of Susan Kare, a
fine arts curator hired by Apple in
1983 to design the look and feel of
the Macintosh interface. Her
whimsical, easy-to-grok icons
tempted even nontechies to pick up
a mouse, and her sleek screen
fonts—with jet-set names like
Geneva and Monaco—launched the
first wave of elegant digital
typography.”
" Based in California, Kare believes
that good icons should be more
like road signs than illustrations,
easily comprehensible, and ont
cluttered with extraneous detail,
She also observes that just because
millions of colors are available,
every one need not be used in
every icon and that when icons are
meaningful and well- crafted they
need not be frequently redesigned.
Testing Cultural Perceptions
If a symbol has no pictorial reference and is comprised of an arbitrary mark, its
meaning must be learned. This can be problematic when cultural, age and national
bias comes into play. But if the sign has not yet acquired any meaning could the
form alone transmit a message?
Swastika
The swastika has taken on perhaps the most
diverse meanings of any symbol. In Europe and
the West it is a disturbing reminder of Adolph
Hitler and the Nazis regime. The swastika, as a
Nazi symbol, is banned in Germany but a
proposal to extend the ban across the European
Union in 2005 failed. Microsoft has banned it
from all games.

Artist Gerd Arntz used the swastika to protest against

Nazi Germany's political corruption.
Religious Issues

A symbol that heals in one country may be painful in

another. The Red Cross symbol (a reverse of the Swiss
flag) was afforded protection under the Geneva
convention of 1864. Its intention is to identify medical aid
personnel.

The cross symbol is restricted to a proportion comprised

of squares but for non-Christians the cross symbolizes
Christianity. Those that reject the cross symbol use their
own version such as the Red Crescent or the Red Star of
David.
A proposal has been adopted that
countries use a universal sign of the
Red Crystal when operating
outside the border like Israel .
Age and Context
old skull and crossbones used in the past to identify
poisons had little meaning for the children in the 20th
century. Pirate symbols have been exploited in movies,
cartoons, commercial products and amusement parks to
denote happy, exciting things like pirates and adventure.

In a university-conducted testing program, children at

daycare centers were shown this symbols which were
affixed to identical bottles of At the beginning of the test,
each child was told that he might find bottles like these at
home and was asked to identify any bottle he might not
like to play with.
 Each manual would also have pages of
camera ready art of the logotype and symbol
Corporate Identity in various sizes that could be cut and pasted
onto layouts that were prepared for the
printer.
Graphic designers were engaged to
design logos as well as write and
produce standards manuals to
instructed corporate employees in
the proper application of the logo,
recommended typographic
treatments and color palettes.
 Brand Management

Alina Wheeler, branding expert writes,

"Branding has entered everyone's lexicon.
The term is a chameleon: meaning it can
change with content. Sometimes it is a noun
as in "This is my brand of choice" and
sometimes it is a verb as in "Let's brand this
campaign." Brand has been synonymous
with the name of the company and its
reputation. Brand is the promise, the big
idea, and the expectations that reside in each
customer's mind about a product, service or
company. People fall in love with brands,
trust them, develops strong loyalties to them,
buy them and believe in their superiority.
The brand is shorthand. it stands for
something
Anti-Branding and Culture
Jamming
Exercise: 1
Exercise: 2
Exercise: 3
Exercise: 4
Exercise: 5
Exercise: 6
Exercise: 7
Exercise: 8
Exercise 9
Identify :
Identify :
 1 Image Source
Paul Rand, American Modernist
PaulRand.com

2 American History Series, American Business, 1920-2000: How It Worked -

Thomas K. McCraw, Harvard Business School, 2000.

3 Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building, and

Maintaining Strong Brands, Alina Wheeler, p4.
4 THE WAY WE LIVE NOW: 12-01-02: PROCESS; A New Poland, No Joke By
Sarah Boxer Published: December 1, 2002

5 The Gap Logo Debacle: A Half Brained Mistake, Umair Haque, Harvard
Business Review.
 6 The Urban Dictionary