Otl Aicher's pictograms
communicate a lot with such simple combined line and shape. His
'pictograms tended to conflate details to form an abstraction',
this meant that he would usually take the subjective, exaggerated
route when designing them. Often they were clear in meaning yet were
not obvious or simplified.
 |
| Otl Aicher Pictograms |
However, a survey done
by Martin Krampen (one of Aicher's influences) found that 'the
level of familiarity had to be 'relatively high' if pictorial
representation is to support human action.' Meaning that every
viewer needs to find something familiar in the design, so they are
not isolated/misinterpreting.
This meant that for
some experimental pictograms I produced to represent anxiety, I made
sure the designs had an objective foundation (e.g. a cloud) but with
a subjective twist (a square cut from the cloud.) A subjective mood
made in an objective symbol, should still maintain an element of
depth.
 |
| Objective interpretations of subjective feeling 'anxiety' |
Aicher believed for
symbols they should be a 'conclusion without flourish or
confidence', indicating his is more likely to create something
objective and simple for these.
 |
| Drip experiment made into a subjective pictogram for anxiety, too subjective |
No comments:
Post a Comment