Brief:
In this exercise you will read existing signs, symbols and images, and then drawing on
their visual language create your own symbols.
Requirements
- Choose one of the following concepts: Danger, Movement, Love, Here.
- Research the different similes and metaphors that are in common use.
- Document them through drawings, collecting examples and mind maps.
- Create an alternative symbol to represent at least one of the concepts.
Analyse The Brief
Short and long-tail keywords
Read existing signs, symbols, images, drawing on their visual language, create your own symbols, danger, movement, love, here, similes, metaphors, common use, document through drawings, collecting examples, mind maps, create alternative symbol to represent at least one of the concepts.
What do I think I am being asked to do?
This exercise is to do with the visual language and how we read certain images. Firstly I am to understand the different similes and metaphors that are in common use today. I have to read existing signs, symbols and images and draw on their visual language to create my own symbol. I am to choose one concept from the list of – danger, movement, love and here. I am to then create an alternative symbol that represents at least one of these concepts.
Communication issues, design problems and other concerns
- Where will I find existing signs, symbols and images?
- How will my symbol represent the concept?
- What concept will I use and why?
- Where will I find metaphor and simile examples?
- How will I keep the language of the symbol so that the viewer will still understand the meaning?
- What colour scheme will I go for?
- What programme will I use to design the symbol?
- Who will critique my work?
Research And Develop Ideas
To start, I had to gain a better understanding of the meanings of the words ‘simile’ and ‘metaphor’, so I decided to find images online that would describe them best. I am a very visual person and find images sometimes explain something to me better than reading an article.
Okay so now I have an understanding of both. A ‘metaphor’ is symbolic of something else and a ‘simile’ is a phrase that uses comparison to describe.
Next, I decided to search the internet for a few famous metaphors used by famous people.
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life” – Pablo Picasso
“Chaos is a friend of mine” – Bob Dylan
“America has tossed its cap over the wall of space” – John F. Kennedy
And then I had a think about what examples of the word ‘simile’ are popular today.
“As blind as a bat”
“Slept like a log”
“As free as a bird”
“As cool as a cucumber”
But, what does a metaphor represent in the visual language? I asked myself this question and realised we think of a metaphor as part of a text or figure of speech but we actually see the use of metaphors everywhere, for example on a website we would use the magnifying glass symbol as search and the symbol of a house to take us to the home page. I found other examples of metaphors used as symbols for website design and other miscellaneous symbols to help me with my own design.
These symbols are simple, straight to the point and effective, really user friendly. I wondered to myself what a metaphor would look like as more of an illustrated image, so I took to the internet and had a look for another visual metaphor.
Interesting, I found this image and as soon as my eyes met the illustration I knew this was a visual representation of global warming and the fact that the earth appears to be melting, this shows us the earth is getting hotter and hotter. What the illustration is meant to be an ice cream melting on top of a ice cream cone. I wonder If to choose the concept ‘danger’ and turn this illustration into a symbol? That is something to consider going forward.
Next I wanted to touch back on the concept ‘simile’ but in a more visual way, so I decided to take the examples I already thought of above, turn them into illustrations and then go even further and see what each would look like as an abstract symbol.
The bat has glasses and a walking stick that represents someone that is considered ‘blind as a bat’.
The sketch of a log appears to be sleeping that represent the simile ‘slept like a log’
The bird appears to be breaking out of shackles to represent the simile ‘as free as a bird’
The cucumber looks cool in his shades and someone would say he is ‘as cool as a cucumber’
I had fun coming up with these ‘simile’ designs and found it interesting turning each one into a symbol, it helped me get an idea for how I can take one image and turn it into something more abstract by creating a minimalistic version. I could have even gone the other way and created a more realistic version of the image so I would have 3 versions of the same image.
At this point I had a better understanding of the words metaphor and simile and decided this would be a good time to move onto the design stage and create my own symbol. I created a spider diagram for each concept and found symbols online to give me a better understanding of what each concept represents and in return help me decide what concept to use going further.
Danger
“The possibility of suffering harm or injury.”
“A cause or likely cause of harm or injury.”
“The possibility of something unwelcome or unpleasant happening.” – Google
Movement
“An act of moving.”
“A change or development.” – Google
Love
“An intense feeling of deep affection.”
“A great interest and pleasure in something.” – Google
Here
“In, at, or to this place or position.”
“Used when introducing something or someone.” – Google
Design Stage
I decided to go for movement because I imagined graphic design and without movement, there wouldn’t be any new material to design upon because if our culture stayed the same and didn’t move, life would be stagnant and we wouldn’t have interests or believe in anything because everything would be the same.
So next I wanted to figure out how my symbol would represent ‘movement’. I had a look at my spider diagram and saw that I had put down ‘energy’ as a type of movement, and I thought about how I could represent ‘movement’ in the form of energy. This led me on a journey in my own mind to see what I already know about energy and movement, and I thought about the ‘Newton Cradle’(2). Sir Isaac Newton created the ‘Newton Cradle’ to demonstrate momentum and energy using swinging spheres that once activated they don’t stop moving.
I then thought about the energy inside of us and how energy keeps everything together in the universe, and this led me to the idea of a symbol. I could turn the Newton Cradle into a symbol and put the outline of a human inside. This symbol would represent the constant movement of energy within our bodies. Newton first designed the Newton Cradle so that the metal balls go side to side but as time went by, people started experimenting with different types of cradle and after searching I came across another type of cradle that is in the shape of a sphere. See below for a photo of the Newton Cradle I am talking about.
Once activated, the sphere moves into a constant rotation.
I decided next to go back to the symbols I found during my ‘movement’ research and see if any would closely match the Newton Cradle and the one that stood out the most was the one I highlighted below.
I like this symbol as the language is clear. The symbol clearly shows an act of movement but If I was to add a human figure, how would people know that the symbol represents the movement of human energy?. This is something I had to keep in mind when coming up with a design. I had to also keep in mind what colour would represent the human flow of energy? and what other design elements could I add that would improve the language of the symbol?.
“Chi is the energy current that runs through our bodies, providing us with circulation, nutrients, and minerals that we need to be whole” –Taz Bhatia
This quote closely describes my thoughts about ‘movement’ and the role it plays in the function of our human bodies.
I carried out some visual research to see what other signs, symbols or images I could find that describe the human flow of energy. To showcase what I found I created a moodboard and included each website in order from left to right.
https://feng-shui.lovetoknow.com/tai-chi-symbol
https://blog.mamashealth.com/acupuncture/chi-qi-energy/
https://www.pranachy.store/post/qi-gong-life-force-cultivation
https://www.yogajournal.com/meditation/everything-need-know-meditation-posture
https://www.shutterstock.com/search/tree+pose+yoga
https://bit.ly/37ThrwC
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/219972763022926726/
https://www.yogiapproved.com/yoga/combat-winter-blues-yoga/
As I was adding images to my moodboard I started to see something forming. I thought of ways that we increase the vibration and energy inside our bodies and yoga came to mind, so I searched for yoga poses and thought what if I create the silhouette of someone doing a yoga pose and place them inside an energy symbol.
I next thought about the colour scheme I would go for and had a look on the internet to see what colour represents energy. I thought if I include as much language as possible that represents energy and movement that my symbol would make more sense to the viewer.
The colour red seems to be the colour of energy so I could perhaps include that into my design. Red is the colour for energy but is there a colour that represents movement, I asked myself. I had a look on the internet and found an interesting article talking about the colour orange being the colour that most represents movement.
“Orange is a very vibrant and energetic color. In its muted forms it can be associated with the earth and with autumn. Because of its association with the changing seasons, orange can represent change and movement in general. Orange is also strongly associated with creativity.” – smashingmagazine
I then spent time contemplated on the idea of how I would incorporate these colours into my design.
Before diving into my sketchbook to start coming up with sketches for my design, I wanted to see what other signs and symbols are out there that represent movement in everyday life and how I could incorporate them into my design.
Signs and symbols are seen everyday in the form of movement and direction, especially when driving. We rely on these signs and symbols to get us to our destination. The images above are the typical road signs we see that are to do with movement on a daily basis.
Compared to these road signs, my symbol is going to be completely different in the sense that instead of a sign that represents movement in the street while driving, my symbol is going to represent movement in the human body. I will keep an arrow in my design as this seems to be the most popular symbol for movement.
‘Qi’, or ‘Chi’ is human energy flow that moves around the human body, outwards and back in almost like a constant flow of electricity running through the human body. When we build up more and more energy through meditation, exercise and nutrition, the momentum of energy in our body increases, making the movement of energy even more attractive, faster and stronger.
From the description above, I am going to attempt to create a symbol.
Visualising My Ideas
I took to my sketchbook to attempt creating a symbol that represents ‘movement’ in the form of ‘qi’.
When sketching, I had in mind that the language of the symbol needs to be as clear as possible for the viewer to understand what is going on. The key points I had to think about when sketching and designing were:
- Energy
- Human energy
- Movement
- Colour of movement and energy
- Language
- Shape
- Line weight
- Yoga
- Meditation
Below is a sequence of designs that I created using Illustrator. I used the same theme across them all but tweaked each one to get to my final image.
This was my first attempt at creating a symbol for ‘movement’. I knew I was coming away from my initial idea of creating a ‘Newton Cradle’ style symbol but I wanted to try a few different designs first so that I could compare each one and find inspiration for my final symbol.
I decided against my first design as I noticed in my research that most signs or symbols that are in the shape of a triangle usually represent some kind of danger(3). This was my first attempt at creating a human silhouette, I created it using the pen tool in Illustrator. The silhouette is a human doing a yoga pose and I added a red circle inside the silhouette that represents energy and then I created the orange circle that represents movement. I was on to something but I wasn’t quite succeeding with the concept. I wanted the design to show a constant movement of energy in and around the human body but I feel the language of this design is quite confusing.
This is my second design. I took the first design and made a couple of changes to help the language of the design. I closed the line and added 2 arrows so that it represents a constant flow of movement. I like the the way this design turned out but I wanted to go further and try and make the design more understandable. I wanted to choose another yoga pose because the one I used above potentially won’t make sense to a lot of people because after searching google for the name of the pose, I couldn’t find it anywhere so realised this pose isn’t a typical/ popular yoga pose.
This is my third design attempt. I changed the silhouette to a woman performing the Lotus pose. The most popular pose we know in yoga today(4). I added the red circle to represent energy and the orange circles to represent movement. I added the symbol of energy inside the red circle to help people understand what is going on. After creating this image I noticed that the language of the image represents the output of human energy, the energy that we release into the universe and not the kind of energy that represents ‘qi’.
.
After completing the last 2 designs and realising that I created the wrong language, I knew I had to fix this problem and come up with something that displays a constant movement of energy around the human body. So I went back to the drawing board and attempted a different design.
Okay, my fifth design. I liked the way this one was going as I had something that looked like the Newton Cradle. I also like the space of each element as it creates a nice proportioned symbol and in return more visually appealing.
I decided for my sixth design that I would flip the energy symbol on it’s side because now the design has the sign of ‘love’ hidden in the symbol. I loved this find as it now gives the symbol even more understandable language because love is energy and energy is movement.
This is my seventh design and I am pleased with the way it came out. I wanted the language of this symbol to represent movement in the form of – the human flow of energy. In bullet points below I will in short sentences explain what I did to add language to the symbol.
- The silhouette is of a woman performing the Lotus yoga pose. Yoga is known to naturally increase the energy within our bodies.
- I found out earlier that orange is a popular colour that represents movement, so I created an orange circle and placed it inside the woman’s body.
- I then added a symbol around the woman that represents the Newton Cradle and energy and filled it with a red colour. The colour red symbolizes energy in spirituality and the chakra.
- I then create more orange circles and placed them around the symbol to represent movement as a whole.
- Finally, I added arrows on the symbol that represent the constant flow of movement.
Finishing My Artwork And Critiquing My Work
This is my final design. I thought that I had created my final design (see seventh) but after having my work critiqued by my girlfriend, we both realised that I still had one more problem to solve. I decided to swap the colours around. We decided that if the colour orange represents movement and the colour red represents energy that I would prefer it if the lines were orange and the circles were red. We decided this because we thought it would make sense if the lines and arrows were orange because now it seems like the orange lines are carrying the red circles of energy around the symbol creating a constant flow of movement and momentum. The red circle inside the woman is the same as the ones around the symbol as this shows that it is the energy in the human body that is in constant movement.
Reflection
I found this exercise difficult at first because I wasn’t to sure how a metaphor or simile would look in a visual form, because I am use to seeing them both in text or hearing someone say a metaphor or simile out loud. Research helped me understand the concept of a simile and a metaphor and I now feel more confident to what they both mean especially in terms of the visual language.
I feel like I got to my final design through proper research of symbols that already exist, and colours that represent both energy and movement. I also feel that what I already know about energy and the part it plays in movement, helped me alot and I feel like my symbol is easy to read and it’s viewer would straight way, understand the language and what the symbol represents.
Finally after playing around with a few different designs, I felt it come together at the end and found a true meaning for movement and energy through the visual language and after getting my partner to critique my work, we both found a problem that slightly confused the language of the design. After swapping a couple of colours around I now have a symbol that I like a lot and hopefully, so will the client.
Tools Used
- Illustrator
- Photoshop
- Sketchbook
- Mock up template
- Royalty free image for the silhouette
I feel like my skills on Illustrator are improving the most, I am currently making my way through an Illustrator course and making great progress.
Book I am reading
The Artist’s Way – A Spiritual Path To Higher Creativity
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/615570.The_Artist_s_Way
Bibliography –
(1) https://www.bartleby.com/161/525.html
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_cradle
(3) https://www.123rf.com/photo_106200862_stock-vector-collection-of-warning-signs-set-of-safety-signs-caution-signs-signs-of-danger-signs-of-alerts-.html
(4) https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/seated-in-the-self
Stephen Furber 