Graphic symbolisms
Back in the day when I was a Graphic Design student, we had our very first assignment: graphic symbolisms. The teacher said we had to come up with easily identifiable symbols for several concepts. The rules: no letters or numbers, no color, no using the typical symbolism, minimal graphic detailing and viewers had to be able to understand the concept in less than 3 seconds.
Piece of cake! - I thought. Turns out it started to become harder than I imagined. What could be a graphic symbolism for “Handicap” without recurring to the typical wheelchair, without using color (blue, perhaps?) - without breaking the rules, that is. Want to know what I did? guy in a wheelchair, facing left. Ah, not very original, but not quite the typical right-facing wheelchair.
We tested our symbolisms showing them to others, to see if they could identify them easily, and asking why. A friend and classmate back then, showed me this one:
H!
Do you know what that means? Think about it. I know it breaks like 3 of the original rules, all I could think was “WTF”. The teacher saw him working on it and she showed it to the rest of the class, making fun of it. I guess his point was being funny, not communicating a concept at all.
It was supposed to mean “Silence”… what did you think?
I think that I’m thoroughly confused! I don’t understand where he was going with that at all… (it’s going to be one of those really obvious things that leaves me feeling stupid, isn’t it?).
I have no idea how that means silence. Unless that’s the reaction it provokes. :P
I thought it meant Hi, I guess I’m not that imaginative :P.
Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Huh. Pretty darn obvious… NOT.
To be honest, as you were elaborating on your story, I thought the guy meant the “H!” to represent the handicapped, so then I thought: “ok… *maybe* he was trying to be funny…” But then it took the unexpected turn towards “silence” and I was lost.
In any case, Lene… you should make this your site’s new symbol! It’s hip, it’s catchy, and it goes with the domain name =P You should think about it!
My first thought was that it represented “Hi” too, because the ! just looked like an upsidedown i!
I wouldn’t have guessed “Silence”, and I’m still now sure if I can understand it. :P
That’s an interesting assignment though, I’d be interested to see some more symbols that your class came up with. :D
At first I thought it was Hi, but then I was reading a book while looking and suddenly thought of the silent “H”.
I thought it was Hi, too! But if I did try to read that, I would make a “heh” sound :P
That seems like an interesting assignment to get you to think, though. I’d be interested in hearing about some successful graphic symbolisms!
I thought it was “Hi” lol. I should have known it was something more complex.
Creepily enough, my first though when I saw that was “Hush!” So, you know, I relatively got it. I think it’s time for a cookie.
Great idea for the favicon. I was with Ramsha on this, probably because my english teacher always says “hush people!”
Doesn’t it represent silence cause in Spanish the H is mute?