Brief:
In this exercise you will read existing signs, symbols and images, and then drawing on their visual language create your own symbols. Choose one of the following concepts:
Danger Movement Love Here
How does existing visual language represent these concepts, for example both ‘danger’ and ‘love’ use red, while ‘movement’ and ‘here’ use arrows. Research the different similes and metaphors that are in common use. Document them through drawings, collecting examples and mind maps.
Now create an alternative symbol to represent at least one of the concepts.
Pencil and paper is the fastest and most practical way of working out your initial designs. You may then want to develop your idea further using computer software.
What am I being asked to do?
Analyse the visual language of one of these four concepts: “Danger”, “movement”, “love” and “here” and then create a new symbol for it.
I began this exercise by analysing the four words on the subject of signs and symbols to get a better idea on how I could approach this brief. I was automatically inclined to the “danger” theme because this is the one I most connect to, I’ve always been into extreme sports and the more danger something holds the more excitement I feel. This is why I am going to explore the ‘danger’ theme.
I started off by sketching up the ideas that popped up into my head straight away. The first thing I drew was the red cross symbol, I then drew the triangle sign with the exclamation mark. The third design was a picture that I already had in my collection. It is an image of a finger pointing directly at the reader, the image really caught my attention when I first saw it which Is why I saved it, I feel like I maybe able to use it effectively for this task.
I wanted to expand more on the word ‘danger’ so I created a mind map to see where it would take me.
The mind map gave me a few words which reminded me about symbols which connect to danger. For example the word “death” reminded me about the “danger of death” sign and also the word “hazard” reminded me about the various different symbols that come up in the hazard perception test. I am going to research the different types of signs and symbols which already exist so I can use these ideas to form my own design.
These are the symbols that I collected. I can use ideas from each one to come up with my own design. I really liked the one on the bottom right, I have never seen it before and even though it doesn’t have any writing I can still understand what it is communicating, for example to me it is saying “Danger, get back!”. I think I am going to use the same concept for my idea.
I then went on to make a more polished, digital version of one of my sketches using Adobe Photoshop. I added a red colour to my design because from what I gathered red is the most popular colour with symbols which relate to danger.
Experimenting and developing ideas
After creating my main image I then designed the wording to go with the symbol. “Danger” and “Get Back” are the two expressions I decided to use as they are both very striking words. I then began to experiment with different backgrounds and these are the designs I came up with.
Designs and criticism
I really liked the top two designs because they looked more complete. I posted the three symbols in my family group chat for feedback and the one on the top left was the most popular, my cousin gave me criticism about the red on red colour scheme, he said he would have preferred to see a different colour background or a different colour image which was something that was also on my mind, so this is what I began to experiment on.
Final design
After experimenting with different colours this is the colour scheme I chose. The dark background puts more emphasis on my main image, I have also wrote clear instructions in big bold writing on the top and bottom of my symbol.
There are already so many different signs which makes me satisfied for being able to create a simple but unique idea.
Reflection
Overall I really enjoyed this exercise, I put more effort into developing and experimenting with my ideas instead of just jumping into a solution, I found this process very helpful. Even though I used minimalist ideas I was still happy with my final design.
OCA Graphic Design 