Connecting the dots between Symbols & Icons.
Human civilisations have been using pictorial representation to communicate and send messages since a very long time. We started drawing even before we learned how to speak, in fact quite before we learned how to cook.
Weird right !!!
The oldest known symbol to Mankind is presumably 70,000 years old carved inside a cave probably signifying the number of people in there. Symbols are sick old and equally interesting to demystify.
Historical significance
While now a days, these icons/symbols make our life easy and simple, in older days these symbols would represent Ideology, Belief & Culture or even some very deft codes and secrets. When you study Semiotics you realise how important these symbols are and how have they shaped our modern visual architecture.
Let’s take an example:
The Pentagram
Also known as Pentacle has been most controversial symbol of all time. We very often see this symbol in movies depicting witchcraft and satanic rituals.
But will you believe if I say pentagram was originally the most holy and prominent symbol used by church in and before 15th century? To make you believe, it can still be seen in some very old christian buildings.
The drift started in around early 16th century when the secret society called illuminati took pentagram as their symbol of knowledge and discovery. These were group of scientist, discoverers, mathematicians and astrologers. Some very prominent names of 15th century like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo & Galileo are believed to be in this secret society. Church in those days were very much against anything that is outside of Biblical scrolls. The symbol however was labelled outlaw and illegal, something that depict as they said witchcraft.
Pentagram(pagan, used by illuminati) vs Baphomet (Depict evil and witchcraft):
The only difference here is alignment.
Images leave strong long lasting impression in our mind and have greater recall value. This is the reason you couldn’t recall the name of somebody in an old photograph but still remember their face.
We associate to pictogram more than textual messages. They are strong, have a great reminiscent impression and easily recognisable.
No Language and Geographical barrier
Just like love, symbols know no barrier.
For example while you travel to another country, you easily figure out basic signs across streets, malls, airport and other public places. You really don’t need to know their local language to understand them. Sign/symbols here depict certain messages and are easily recognisable than words.
Imagining a world without symbols and icons is next to impossible. They are everywhere and have become integral part of our lives.
They provide vital information and stands out quite differently than simple texts.
Modern Use
Today we know Graphical annotations with different names like Logos, Symbols, Icons, Emblem, Mark, Signage, Cypher, Monogram etcetera. Each of these came into existence at different time frame and have significant difference with each other. Few of them however are same with minor difference like Monogram and Emblem. But we will keep our spectrum short and would cover 3 commonly known pictorials of modern day: Symbols, Icons and Logos ( All these explanations are in terms of graphics and visual, we are not including philosophical values of words here.)
• Symbols
Symbols are always associated with messaging. A graphical annotation which signify an ideology, value, belief or culture. Symbols gets their meaning and significance due to common association with people when they start valuing its prominence and their acceptance grows gradually.
In a very recent example, Indian government launched symbol for their currency. Now it doesn’t matter how the new Rupee symbol looks like, or what’s the meaning and inspiration behind it. A symbol receives its value as more people starts using it. A symbol need not always have to have a meaning or inspiration behind it.
It was easy in the case of ‘Rupee’ as everybody knew in instance through digital/print media & various other public forums. But back in days, the popularity of symbol would gradually spread across mass and patiently get the prominence.
• Icons
Icons are something which has a meaning to it. Remember ‘it doesn’t signify an ideology, value, belief or culture like symbol; icons are self explanatory and made so that people could easily get them. They simply stand for a message and most of the time you know their meaning. You can easily replace an icon with words. Now the question comes why to use an icon in the very first place while you can use words instead. It has a very simple answer to it-’Impact’. You must have heard of the saying that ‘A picture speaks a thousand words’. Same goes for icons. Let’s take this example:
Icons also de-clutter information into sub-sections. You don’t really need to read anything for information, your subconscious gets it as soon as you see them.
• Logo
Logo is a symbol (will explain why…) adopted by an organisation or individual to represent a product or service. Now to sort out the confusion, a symbol is something accepted by a community through the run of time. With logo it is more or the less same, just that it doesn’t signify an ideology, value or belief but only an organisation. Second major difference is the graphical structure. Logo has certain design and usage practice and you can’t compromise them. Doing so will revoke the principle identity of organisation and in few cases might impend legal obligation. There are more to logos like Work mark, Pictorial mark, Combination, Signature, Mnemonic etc. But let’s not go there as these are different logo types different brands adapt to communicate with customer.
Origin and Meaning of few everyday icons
A lot of modern day icons are inspired from mythological and historical symbols. They contain values that are ingrained in human mind since a very long time and we quickly relate to it. For example an ‘Asterisk (*)’ symbol came from 2000 years old character used by Aristarchus. A scholar and librarian who used to examine literature. He would put Asterisk at the end of lines which were not perfect and required correction. So the use of an Asterisk started by a librarian is now one of the most useful annotation of todays literature.
There are icons we see in our day to day life which are very common and we know their meaning also. But we actually never thought of why they are made like that? Or what is the story behind that particular design?
I have chosen few icons and have tried to explain their origin. Let’s check them out:
1. Bluetooth
Jim Kardach was reading a book on King Harald Bluetooth while he was asked by intel to develop a wireless technology to transfer data between devices.
He was so fascinated by the work of Bluetooth that not only did he named the technology after the king’s name, he even made the icon. He combined the character ‘H’ and ‘B’ of ancient runes script to design the bluetooth icon we use today.
2. Red Cross
At the 1864 Geneva Convention, this symbol was established as a symbol of protection for humanitarian who used to help poor and effected people in wars. Under International humanitarian law, whether military or civilian, they are considered non-combatants and may not be attacked and not be taken as prisoners of war by either parties.
Their vehicle, cloths and rescue boxes were all marked with red cross so that they could continue their humanitarian work even in a war zone without any risk to life.
3. Power Symbol
The International Electrotechnical Commission released a document in 1973 explaining the symbols denoting different power stats of a device:
The symbol for the standby button was created by superimposing the symbols “|” and “o”; however, it is commonly interpreted as the numerals “0” and “1” of binary digit. Call it a co-incidence.
4. Apple’s command button
The symbol appears on a number of old objects in Northern Europe believed to be originated around 400–500 AD.
It is also similar to a traditional heraldic emblem called a Bowen knot. This signify protection, command and superiority.
5. Enter & Exit sign
Very often used in signages and symbols, enter-exit button today has lost the very sense of their originality. Now a days you hardly see designs following these details but it’s always good to know the basics.
6. Radio Button
May be we use this selection tool almost every other time we go to our phone settings, right. And we call it a “Radio button” but have you guys ever wondered why you could always select one but not two or more? Of course the scenarios provided in the setting s are made such that choosing one from the given option will make sense, but still have you ever wondered why?
Back in days there were several button on radios. Each of them assigned to one radio channel. Now of course you can not play 2 channels at the same time, in that case as soon as you press the other channel button, the active one would flip up automatically. Just like a cassette player. This is the reason why in UI design, we assign this property to those elements where you only want one selection from given options.
Thanks a lot for reading guys. Please provide your valuable feedback and let me know if I could add upto anything more here.
Cheers!!
