Exercise: Signs & Symbols

Exercise (pg: Graphic Design One): Signs & Symbols

Choose one of the following:

• Danger
• Movement
• Love
• Here

How does existing visual language represent these concepts? Research different similes and metaphors that are in common use. Document them through drawings, collecting examples and mind maps. Now create an alternative symbol to represent at least one of the concepts.

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Looking through my sketchbook I seem to have worked through this exercise fairly systematically. Although I confess there were times I took time out to draw some lightbulbs (for a later exercise!) just for the variation. I started with mindmaps, which gave me the opportunity to explore the concepts and my understanding of them. For each of the concepts I did some of my own sketches of the visuals that came to mind, this was followed with online research and became an iterative process between my sketching and other examples.

• Initially, the concept that interested me least was ‘Love’ and my research confirmed that the most common symbol used is that of the heart with the colour red.
• ‘Danger’ tends to be bold, and eye-catching again using red or yellow. This is clearly related to the need to act as a warning in most cases.
• ‘Here’ is locational, and seems to be mostly associated with arrows, although colour schemes and typography are quite varied.
• ‘Movement’ was the concept that surprised me most in terms of the direction it took. To start with I thought of it in terms of physical movement but the examples then highlighted its other meaning in terms of ‘a movement.’ Graphic design in relation to activism is an area I have become increasingly interested in (see my recent pins in the sidebar and my Socio Political Graphic Design Pinterest Board) so the connection with movement was a useful one.

The initial examples of physical movement I found focused on sequences of images. Having looked at Krasnopolski, when I was doing my sketches I decided to impose a constraint on myself of representing movement using as few lines as possible which is how the dancing figures emerged. Some of my squiggles reminded me of the Op Art movement so I researched Bridget Riley and others.

I then got confused about the brief in terms of whether an alternative symbol meant something completely different (i.e. love might be represented as a chest of drawers) or whether it was my own adaptation within the existing symbolism of the concept.

I decided this was about my adaptation or development of the symbolism and having looked at the Op Art work decided to attempt combining both ‘movement’ and ‘love’. I wanted to capture the notion of the heart beating but that there may be some distortion – love is not always easy or straightforward. Following some very sketchy drawings in Adobe Draw I moved on to Photoshop and tried out different filters.

This was followed by some work on symbols I might create for the sustainability ‘movement.’ They are intended to capture a sense of the negative impact of our movement across the planet and how it may be slowly disappearing.

My preferred results are:

The heart was created with the wind filter in Photoshop and I like that is distorted and jagged. I liked the way the red in the centre almost looks like an ECG wave form. I prefer the smaller footsteps on the globe I think they convey better the idea of the actions of humanity walking us into a very uncertain future.

In working on the exercise I was intrigued about the apparent universality of symbols and how they become socially and culturally embedded. I had the opportunity to try an activity with the OCA Thames Valley Group, a group of primarily photography students at different stages in their studies that meets monthly. I asked everyone to do a quick illustration of their response to the four concepts. It was fascinating to see the commonality and some of the differences. I particularly liked the notion of the Ying & Yang symbol for love. I am grateful to the group for permission to include their drawings in  my blog.

 

 

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