How to Use Animal Symbology in Design + Inspirational Showcase
This is a guest article contributed by Helga.
Learn how animal imagery can influence a person’s emotions and how you can use this to your advantage in your designs.
1. The Bat
Let’s begin with the most evil animal symbol. It’s the bat. Bats are regarded as symbols of death, superstition, fear, night, and cult. They are often mixed up with witchcraft and occults in the Western folktales. You will be surprised, but Chinese, on the contrary, believe that a bat is a sign of happiness and good fortune. The Africans and ancient Greeks believed it was a symbol of articulacy.
2. The Bear
The bear is a symbol of strength, courage and tenacity. It also represents a gentle friendship and a docile follower in camouflage. However, bear’s love for honey adds up an amusing element into the symbol of power and dignity.
3. The Bird
A bird is a symbol of human soul. It represents the best of its qualities like: goodness, joy, wisdom and intelligence. In Western art the bird symbolizes the air, connection throughout the life time. The bird flight symbolizes the trip of our soul to the future. Additionally the flying birds represent hope, beauty and transcendence.
4. The Bull
The bull symbolizes fighting ability and male fertility. What’s more, the symbol of the bull stands for valor and magnanimity ever since the prehistoric times.
5. The Butterfly
The pretty butterfly represents the soul and resurrection in several parts of the world. In other words, the butterfly is a symbol of life and its cycle.
6. The Cat
The cat is a symbol for spiritual power, freedom, love of liberty and even bad luck in Japan. The black cat is associated with cunning of evil in the Celtic world and damnific djinns in the Islamic world.
7. The Dog
The dog is a symbol of companion and guardian. Dogs are very positive; they are loyal, faithful, honest and willing to fight the injustice.
8. The Dolphin
The dolphin is a symbol of salvation, transformation and love.
9. The Eagle
The eagle is a symbol of power, action, speed and perception. Eagles have the power, intuition, creativity, balance and grace. Their vision is sharp which gives them the ability to see the hidden truth and spiritual principles. The eagle has been adopted as an emblem round the globe.
10. The Elephant
In China, India and Africa, the elephant is a symbol of power, dignity, intelligence and peace. They also have a great memory!
11. The Fox
Look at this sly muzzle. The fox is a symbol of intelligence, cunning and slyness. In the medieval period, it even appeared as a symbol of the devil but in China and Japan people believe that the fox brings wealth.
12. The Horse
The horse is a symbol for velocity, vitality and beauty. It represents the power of the wind, storm, fire and waves.
13. The Lion
The lion is a symbol of deathless courage, strength, fearlessness, bravery and royalty. Its body has been commonly used in portraying mythological creatures, Egyptian sphinx, for instance.
14. The Monkey
The monkey is a symbol of fun, activity, charm and an energetic nature. Monkey is one of the Chinese zodiac signs. It characterizes a person who has many friends. It is a sign of natural curiosity, but can show self-indulgence and rebellion.
15. The Owl
The owl is a symbol of vigilance, acute wit and has been associated with spirits. It has been regarded as a guide in the underworld. Owls are great hunters and Celts associated them with wisdom, keen sight, and patience.
16. The Shark
The shark is a symbol of terror and violence. It is the world’s greatest predator, and therefore symbolizes power and fearlessness.
17. The Snake
The snake is a symbol for charm, danger and sexual energy.
18. The Spider
The spider symbol means creativity and is often believed to connect the past and the future. Many cultures consider the spider as the weaver of the fabric of life where they introduce both writing and clothing making. It also scares.
19. The Tiger
The tiger is a symbol of power and energy all over the world. It is prominently featured in Chinese mythology and takes the second place after the lion in the badge of military ranking.
20. The Wolf
The wolf is a symbol of cruelty, cunning and greed in some cultures. Thus, others admire it because of courage and drive for the victory.
Our brief animal trip comes to an end. We hope you liked it. And now you know exactly what animal symbols to use when you want emphasize a specific company feature.
Animal Imagery & Website Traffic
But what about animal images and website traffic? Are they connected somehow? We are sure that nobody will argue the fact that emotions influence conversions. And animal images are definitely able to stir emotions. Of course your website should be appealing and user-friendly, but an animal image can become its special zest.
- Firstly, you can convey more information about the company through the animal associated with it.
- Secondly, you can draw user’s attention by the unusual interpretation of animal image you have chosen.
- Thirdly, please, ask yourself a question what animals are not capable of? They are not able to lie. So, animal images automatically raise customers’ trust to the company.
- Fourthly, animals can be so fun and cute that the users can’t resist their charm and are ready to do whatever you want them to.
A Better User Experience
We won’t dare to affirm that animal image will immediately boost your website traffic as there are lots of other influences. That wasn’t the aim of our post, by the way. We just wanted to share the thought that creative use of animal imagery can help convey a customer’s ideas better, prepossess the visitors, make them smile, engage and gently compel the users do exactly what you want.
Isn’t that what all of us are longing for? Now you have one more powerful tool named animal symbolism in your web design kit.
Animal Symbolism Web Design Showcase
You can see how other designers have used animal images in their designs in the inspirational showcase below.
Trionn
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Hudyl
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Razor Jam
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Corvu
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Boru Collars
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More than 20
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Stop the Vom
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Go
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Yeti
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Speak up!
Do you use animal images in your designs? Do you believe that animal images in combination with other specific design elements can increase website traffic? Are you ready to share your own designs with animal images?
MORE ANIMAL SYMBOLISM
An updated list of animal symbolism in design, branding & advertising.
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Helga Moreno is a writer for TemplateMonster.com. Follow her on Google+.
Originally published at JUST™ Creative.
