ICON
noun
1. a devotional painting of Christ or another holy figure, typically executed on wood and used ceremonially in the Byzantine and other Eastern Churches.
"an icon of the Madonna hangs on the wall"
2. a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration.
"this iron-jawed icon of American manhood"
3. COMPUTING
a symbol or graphic representation on a screen of a program, option, or window
I think that the most relevant definition is that for computing - a graphic representation on a screen of a program, option or window. In my opinion an icon is a simplified image that represents a certain object.
SYMBOL
noun
1. a mark or character used as a conventional representation of an object, function, or process, e.g. the letter or letters standing for a chemical element or a character in musical notation.
"the symbol r in Figure 5 represents a gene which is ineffective"
a shape or sign used to represent something such as an organisation, e.g. a red cross or a Star of David.
"the Red Cross symbol"
2. a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.
"the limousine was another symbol of his wealth and authority"
I very much agree with this definition of a symbol - that it is a mark or character that is used as a representation of something. A symbol, to me, is a very simplified mark or character that can work in black and white that is universally known to represent something. In my opinion a symbol should work across all countries and not be affected by language barriers.
Our task was to create a new "Fire Exit" or "Emergency Exit" sign, our group found this hard at first because the existing symbol works so well already. It's hard to deviate from the imagery used.
However we decided to go for a triangle shape to put our symbol in because when used in road signs it means "Warning" or "Danger" so we thought that this would be a good start. We played around with different ideas until we came to the conclusion of using a door and arrows within a red outline to once again connote danger. We played around with different arrows, starting with the fast forward symbol of 2 triangles to signify to the person to move swiftly to the exit and then changed our idea to chevrons, which are also used in road signs. We thought this would be more globally acceptable.
1. a mark or character used as a conventional representation of an object, function, or process, e.g. the letter or letters standing for a chemical element or a character in musical notation.
"the symbol r in Figure 5 represents a gene which is ineffective"
a shape or sign used to represent something such as an organisation, e.g. a red cross or a Star of David.
"the Red Cross symbol"
2. a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.
"the limousine was another symbol of his wealth and authority"
I very much agree with this definition of a symbol - that it is a mark or character that is used as a representation of something. A symbol, to me, is a very simplified mark or character that can work in black and white that is universally known to represent something. In my opinion a symbol should work across all countries and not be affected by language barriers.
Our task was to create a new "Fire Exit" or "Emergency Exit" sign, our group found this hard at first because the existing symbol works so well already. It's hard to deviate from the imagery used.
However we decided to go for a triangle shape to put our symbol in because when used in road signs it means "Warning" or "Danger" so we thought that this would be a good start. We played around with different ideas until we came to the conclusion of using a door and arrows within a red outline to once again connote danger. We played around with different arrows, starting with the fast forward symbol of 2 triangles to signify to the person to move swiftly to the exit and then changed our idea to chevrons, which are also used in road signs. We thought this would be more globally acceptable.
To finish off, we produced some of our designs digitally. Our final design is below.
We also tried it with more red but we thought it made it slightly less readable.
These were some of our other ideas mocked up on the sign.
We also tried a range of typefaces before deciding that helvetica is the most legible and commanding font.
No comments:
Post a Comment