Semiotics

Some of them s**ks, some of them clicks

This science of signs is called semiotics!!

Also known as semiology, it is a field of study where the signs, symbols, signification and communication is analyzed. This also includes the study of how human brain constructs a meaning and understands a symbol. The pioneers in this field Vienna Circle and team have unanimously divided this field into the following three parts:

Semantics: The relation between symbols and the object they refer to

Syntactics: The relation between the signs in formal structures

Pragmatics: The relations between signs to the impacts on those who actually use them

Although till now I’ve used signs and symbols interchangeably but in general a sign is simple and straight forward literal representation of something and on the other hand a symbol usually has a complex meaning. Sometimes symbols have multiple meanings and the literal meaning of a symbol could be absurd as well. Almost every religion and culture has its own symbology and that plays a very important role in explaining the difference in the understanding of same thing by different people. Thus implementing internationally accepted logos can actually give the manufacturers an advantage over the others. Scientifically speaking, logos are better in attracting attention and require much less space than the equivalent communication in words. Hence more information can be organized into a given area as compared to that occupied by the language equivalent of the same thing.

Thus if you are planning to go international by launching a product/service worldwide, it is highly recommended that you first develop an understanding of the accepted conventions for using international symbols and icons. Although there is no one big list which can tell you about the DOs and DON’Ts while designing such a logo but still the common points would be to avoid:

• graphic elements with text
• graphics depicting human body elements and body language
• graphics depicting humor, puns, and slang
• graphics depicting physical environments
• graphics depicting ethnic, racial, political, and religious environments
• graphics depicting gender-specific elements
• graphics depicting images of animals
• graphics depicting sexual and violent elements
• graphics depicting regional conventions, such as reading direction, date/time, and monetary elements
• single-letter concepts as they might give rise to confusion over the translation

Keep this list in mind and apply the ‘top-of-the-mind-recall’ for logos. Do the ones which just flashed out in front of your eyes from nowhere follow the above mentioned list? Ideally speaking… they should. If you differ… please put a comment and let me know too :)