Learning to See Iconography

I was assigned to explore around to see different icons in my surroundings. I didn’t go outside to take pictures. I went onto the Internet instead to search for images of icons on Google. I typed in |universal icons| and a bunch of different icons showed up. I could easily tell their meanings without having to learn the meaning behind the icons. I picked icons for Bluetooth, parking right direction, power and wi-fi. So I sketched the icons on paper and took a snapshot of them. After I uploaded the images on my computer, I placed it beside the icons I found online and inserted their meanings. Although I knew symbols and icons both represent something, I couldn’t tell the difference between icons and symbols. After reading the lessons on DesignLab, I learned that symbols are used to represent a certain category of an object such as animals. Icons are similar to the actual product and anyone can easily tell what it stands for because of similarities. They are pictorial representation of the product it stands for. On the other hand, symbols do not resemble what they stand for and one needs to learn what a particular symbol stands for as it’s not similar to what it stands for. In other words, symbols represent products or ideas whereas icons represent items that are visible. I hope that this article will help you be able to distinguish the difference between symbols and icons.