How to Toss Your Hat Like an Icon

Kla'Ra's comment before posted this final poster: I really like the idea. I also think that you did a good job creating the icons. Adding the motion signs is going to help understand what is she really trying to do. What I don't understand is the layout. Is there going to be only two pictures showing the way how is wrong to throw the hat? You probably have in mind the composition already but right now it's not clear for me. Looks really good though. It is totally different from all the other projects everybody else has. Good job!

My response and what I did after her comment: I decided to just show how to toss your hat like an "icon" and not show how not to. I also added my motion markings along with arrows to help explain what to do. To help with the flow and composition, I decided to add a pathway.

Symbols: The Alphabet of Human Thought

After reading this article, I found that there were many types of symbols that are used as alphabets of human thought. I decided to focus on ideograms. Ideograms are characters or symbols that represent a complete idea or concept according to the article. I feel that using ideograms is a very good and efficient way to get your message across to a large amount of viewers.
I thought that this one for a bicycle path was cute and very visible on the dark gray road.


I found this ideogram amusing even though it probably was not meant to be. My first reaction was that I was not sure if I would want to stop swimming if an alligator was coming after me with his jaws open wide. Also, because of the way these two ideograms are juxtaposed, it made me think that they were predicting the outcome of the swimmer. In a way, they may have been predicting the outcome of a swimmer if they decided to swim where hungry alligators were present!

Gerd Arntz- Isotypes

Like the article states, Gerd Arntz was a socially inspired and politically committed artist. Otto Neurath, a social scientist and founder of the Museum of Society and Economy, noticed his work and decided that Arntz's clear-cut style suited his goals perfectly. "He needed a designer who could make very simplistic signs, pictograms that could summarize a subject at a glance." Arntz and Neurath worked together to develop Neurath's method that became known as ISOTYPE, International System Of TYpographic Picture Education. Arntz designed over 4,000 different pictograms and abstracted illustrations for this system that symbolized keydata from industry, demographics, politics and economy. They wanted images that were easy to understand for people that had problems reading and that would be universally understood so that they would overcome language barriers and culture. "Their system became a world-wide emulated example of what we now term: infographics.

I found some isotypes that I liked because, to me, they look like they have a lot of detail without really having a lot of detail.

I like the way that just a few placed bubbles gives the feeling of a bunch of foaming soap. Also, I like how just three vertical lines give the feeling of water flowing from a faucet.

I like the detail of the stacks of paper on the table, the man's tie and the pencils in their hands.


I like the detail of the "travel" isotype by Arntz. The man's clothing has a lot of detail in a simplistic way along with the chair that he is sitting on. I like the feeling of moving forward that is accomplished by putting the man in the chair on an arrow.

The Peace Symbol

At the end of the article, it mentions that signs and symbols can be either considered or interpreted as meaning something good or bad depending on how they used over time and who is interpreting them or using them. The peace symbol uses a basic fork-like symbol or "gesture of despair" motif that is associated throughout ancient history with the "death of man", and the circle with the "unborn child". The fork-like symbol was given the name the "gesture of despair" because, Peter, one of Jesus' twelve apostles, was crucified by Emperor Nero on an upside-down cross in A.D. 67 in Rome. During the 1930's, the peace symbol was first created by the English philosopher and socialist Bertrand Russell as an attempt "to depict the universal convergence of peoples in an upward movement of cooperation." Many people that wear the symbol today as a part of fashion, probably have no idea of its meaning in the world's past history.

I found some interesting peace signs that I thought were very creative.

Green Peace

B-52 Peace Sign

The Swastika

In the reading about the swastika, it mentions about how this symbol was used over and over again in ancient times and is still used in rituals in some Eastern and Far Eastern cultures even today. Before Hitler used and tweaked this symbol, it meant "well being", "good fortune", and "luck". Hitler's version was turned on a corner in a diamond orientation rather than the previously used square orientation. Even though when the swastika is not turned on a corner it is not supposed to represent the Nazi party, it is hard for me to get past what it stood for and see it as representing something good.

The article also mentions about how "Hitler's identity system is the most ingeniously consistent graphic program ever devised. That he succeeded in transmuting an ancient symbol with such a long-lasting historical significance into one that was even more indelible is attributable to his mastery of the design and propaganda processes."

The following pictures are ones that I found showing the swastika being used in the past:

The Swastika Stone- located on the moors near Ilkley in West Yorkshire, England

Netherurd's Swastika Cross Stone- found in Netherurd Main, Kirkurd, Peebleshire, it is thought to be a 10 - 12 century carving on the remains of an old Christian cross. I highlighted the swastikas in red.

Bricks carved with a swastika and script from India.

icons

Modern Hierogyphics

I enjoyed reading "Modern Hieroglyphs". I had never thought about the visual signs that we see everyday as hieroglyphs, but I see now that they are. I can see how some of the signs would be difficult to understand if you were from a different culture, but some, like the ones for different types of sports, I would think anyone from any culture would be able to understand them. The only reason that they didn't understand them would be if they never watched or played that particular sport. I also found it interesting that the main time that the female figure is used is when it is on a bathroom door. I think that the use of modern hieroglyphs is a much more efficient and universal way of getting a message or an instruction across to the viewer. Especially, if the same hieroglyphs were used worldwide, than when someone was in another country and didn't know the language well, they would still be able to understand the visuals.

I found this picture of the male and female hieroglyph dancing from nopartnerrequired.net. It's a website that wants to get you out on the dance floor. I thought that it was a cute idea to use those recognizable images in a different way.

I found this picture, also when looking for a picture for the reading. I have never seen a male and female bathroom sign that was in this style before and thought that it was interesting.

I chose this picture because I thought that it was pretty witty. Especially, since the creator of the original male and female hieroglyphs in the 1920s was the Viennese philosopher and social scientist Otto Neurath.