Intangible Symbol

This is what I believe to be an intangible symbol. The swirls are used to represent wind, thus creating a pictorial symbol of something that is purely intangible.

Sound Symbol

This is the symbol I created to represent a sound. The particular sound i was thinking of was i high pitched sound that increases in volume. I found this exercise quite easy as it is known that some shapes can be interpreted by the human mind as a particular sound. A circle usually represents a low pitch, where a sharp sided shape represents a higher pitch.

Poster

Philosophy

Symbols have been used throughout history and have been handed down to create meaning and give answers. It has been used in philosophy as a simple way of teaching.

The most common forms of philosophical symbols are those used in astronomy and many sciences. In Astronomy symbols have been used to represent each month of the year and it has been told that people that have been born within these months have a determined personality. These symbols are called "Star Signs":



This philosophy is cross cultured as it is also represented through the Chinese Zodiac using different symbols:

Revolution

Uncle Sam has been the symbol of the United States of America, personified. It was originally used to spark moral as WWII military propaganda but has been taken out of context in today's society.

The image of Uncle Sam has been used as a parody on various things such as t-shirts, comics and advertising. Still retaining its meaning yet using the symbol out of context.

Week 6 - Exercise 6 - Rebus

In this weeks class exercise we were asked to create a rebus. Rebus defined is: a puzzle where you decode a message consisting of pictures representing syllables and words. So as you can see we dove right in and missed the actual definition. We made pictures to represent words rather than syllables.

Clients Approval

These are the drafts we came up with for feedback from the class and lecturers. From the response we had a lot of work to do, it was almost there but not quite there. We needed to better convey our message.

Cause Symbol

This is our groups symbol for "Lost and Found Group". We chose this because it was the easiest way of showing the purpose of our group through symbols.

Week 4 - Exercise 4 - Road Signs

In this weeks exercise we were asked to create road signs for various categories. This exercise proved to be a little harder than the others as it was difficult to think of how to create an easily readable symbol without making it too complicated.

Here is my result:

Week 4 - Symbol Style - Changing Symbol

This week we were asked to look at a symbol that has changed over time, how people perceive it or how its meaning has changed. One big symbol that comes to mind is the Twin towers. They used to stand as a symbol of prosperity, and economic power. Ever since September 11 2001 they lost their meaning and turned into a symbol of fear and terror. They also stand as a symbol of hope.

Week 3 - Exercise 3 - Humpty Dumpty

The class exercise for this week was to recreate the story of "Humpty Dumpty" using symbols only... no text. In addition, the symbols couldn't directly relate to the story itself (So we couldn't use and Egg for Humpty Dumpty).

Here is what I came up with:



This exercise wasn't too difficult, the only thing I found slightly hard was just matching the right symbols to create an image that would be easily recognisable.

Week 3 - Symbols Style - Old Wives Tale

Old wives tales and superstitions I've always been interested in. Even though most people know good and well that they are in fact just tales, I do find myself following some of these superstitions sometimes just for the fun of it. Superstitions, i think, were a way for those who couldn't explain different phenomenons or why things happened the way they did. They were also an easy way for parents to scare sense into misbehaving children. I believe that superstitions have lost their meaning due to the fact that advances in our knowledge of the world have been able to come up with rational reasons for why something might happen. Although some superstitions can't be explained if they involve such intangible and immeasurable things like luck.

Some superstitions i've grown up with are:

- An apple a day keeps the doctor away
- To break a mirror will bring you seven years bad luck
- To open an umbrella in the house is to bring bad luck
- If you blow out all of the candles on your birthday cake with the first breath you will get whatever you wish for
- Eating fish makes you smart
- Bread crusts makes your hair go curly
- Holding your breath past a graveyard will grant you a longer life.

What I can take from this exercise is that superstitions are symbols of past thinking being translated into a new world. Either a superstition looses meaning or it retains social value if it can answer what we still see as the unknown.

Week 2 - Exercise 2 - Our Tribe

The exercise this week had us in our "tribes" (groups for our assessment) coming up with a symbol that would identify what we stood for as a group, taking into consideration the different traits and values each individual has.

My Tribe consists of Josh Davey, Ian Joson and myself.

Our task was to first come up with a mind-map of everything we stood for, then we were to create a paragraph, describing in list format, our beliefs and values as a group. From there we were to break down the paragraph into a sentence, from a sentence to a word, and from a word we were to create a single symbol that would be our tribes identifier.

From this exercise, our tribe broke everything down down to be summed up by the word "Curious" - meaning that we like to live curiously and look at the world in detail.

I found this exercise to be both fun and a great learning tool. It teaches to help get ideas to first look big and then refine what you have. This refinement helps me as a designer to come up with simple yet effective ways of creating meaning through symbols.

*Edit - photos of our groups symbol to be posted once received

Week 2 - Symbol Style - Group Identifiers

My task this week was to collect images of identifiers that label a group through the use of a symbol.

Symbols have been used through out history as a simple way for others to identify a particular group of people. For example, a compass and set square has been used as a symbol for the Freemasons for centuries.

I collected up a range of symbols that identifies some well know and some less known groups. Here's what i came up with:


Pentagram - Satanists


Swastika - Nazis


Pitchfork - MS13 (Mexican Gang)



BDSM (Bondage culture)


Peace Symbol - Hippies

Week 1 - Exercise 1 - Tangrams!

Tangrams are a lot of fun... and I haven't done one for a very long time until we were given it as an exercise to complete in class. Our task was to complete 6 Tangrams 1 for each category we were given. The categories were: Flower/plant, Action figure, Vehicle, Appliance, Animal and a Face!

What I gathered from this task, was that when creating a symbol, it has to be universally recognisable and not complex so it clearly shows the viewer what it is and its purpose without having to study the symbol for too long. So this was a perfect task as you were constricted to using only a certain amount of fixed shapes.

I found this task very enjoyable and a fun way at looking at symbol construction.

Here are my 6 Tangram creations:

Flower/plant


Face



Animal



Appliance



Vehicle



Action Figure

Week 1 - Symbol Style - Direction

My task this week was to find and collect symbols showing "direction" that can be found out and about while people go about their daily lives.

The symbols had to show direction of some form without literally pointing the way with an arrow. These symbols are often looked over by the majority of the population as it is built into our way of life and we wouldn't think twice about it as we glanced at one to show us the way.

What I found a little ambiguous about this task, was that which type of direction did the symbol need to be showing you? Somewhere to go? or directions to do something?

So with that in mind a went out and collected 5 examples of symbols that I believed showed direction without and arrow. Here is what I found: