The design of airport signs and airline safety manuals is based upon image recognition. Diagrams there are employed as the primary means of communication in an attempt to explain relatively complex matters with a minimum of words. It was this that truly fascinated me. Since about 1999, I have collected over one hundred safety cards, but until recently I had no clear goal in so doing. Then, in 2003, I noticed three small images on a pack of gum (they translate into please use your wrapper to dispose of the gum in a trashcan), and came to realize that in so far as icons alone can explain something simple, they can also be used to narrate a longer story.

Fast T friend, great clip.

It is one of the most fascinating pieces on Semiotics, Syntactics, and Pragmatics that I have ever read.

Steve, I share your enthusiasm. if you liked it, you may enjoy this article.

Fast T friend, thank you for the link. It echoed exactly was I thinking when I first read you clip:

Actually, if you look backwards, text and visual art have often combined. Think of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Mexican pictographs and Chinese characters. The Eastern world — and particularly the Islamic one — offers a beautiful fusion of line, form and meaning in its elegant calligraphies.