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Graphics 2 introduction to semiotics international safety signs

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Title: Graphics 2 introduction to semiotics international safety signs


1
Graphics 2introduction to semiotics
international safety signs
2
introduction
  • Signage systems
  • lots of signs around us, some standard, some not
    so much
  • Quiz - identify the subject of the sign and how
    it is telling you to behave
  • 25 signs from DIN standard used by UK Health and
    Safety
  • Review of quiz
  • scores - what do they tell us?
  • Discussion - what makes a good sign system?
  • Semiotics - the language of signifiers and
    signified

3
familiar example - packing signs
4
Hans-Rudolf Lutz Die Hieroglyphen von Heute
(1990) (Hieroglyphs of Today) -
http//www.lutz.to/hieroglyphen1.html compendium
of 5,000 international signs and symbols found on
cardboard boxes demonstration of a working
system of signs that has developed without the
formal intervention of graphic designers or
information graphics
5
familiar example - laundry symbols
  • Groupement International d'Etiquetage pour
    l'Entretien des Textiles (International
    Association for Textile Care Labelling)
  • claim to cover 95 of all manufactured textiles
  • GINETEX care symbols are registered with the WIPO
    (World Intellectual Property Organization)

6
international safety signs
  • Three main standards in common usage
  • some signs used by all, others are peculiar to
    one system
  • ISO 3864 International Standards Organisation
  • includes most of the DIN 4844-2 and adds many
    more
  • ANSI Z.535 American National Standards Institute
  • requires text to be used along with pictograms
  • DIN 4844-2 Deutsches Institut für Normung
    (German Institute of Standardisation)
  • most familiar to people in the UK and Europe,
    generally recognised worldwide

7
a short quiz about hazard signs
  • DIN 4844-2 warning signs quiz

8
three types of safety sign
Hazard warning Corrosive materials
Mandatory Wear protective clothing
Prohibited Do not touch
Subtle difference between the signs - most people
get it, but find it hard to put into words and
describe the precise meaning of the sign
9
three types of safety sign
Hazard warning General
Mandatory General
Prohibited General
Cultural knowledge necessary to deduce the
meanings of the signs when pictograms are not
present
10
some interesting cases toxic sign
  • Skull and crossbones - use as a symbol stretches
    back thousands of years
  • Known to have been used in New York State since
    around 1850 to denote poison
  • HAZMAT EU standard toxic symbol Directive
    67/548/EEC
  • ISO, ANSI, DIN and most other standards use the
    same symbol
  • Very powerful cultural symbol
  • does not provide pictorial representation of
    hazard (such as falling figure)
  • could be argued to represent consequences of
    hazard (but what about any other hazard?)

11
some interesting cases biohazard sign
  • Charles Baldwin, Dow Chemical, 1966
  • Wanted a sign with no meaning!
  • We wanted something that was memorable but
    meaningless, so we could educate people as to
    what it means. New York Times, 2001
  • Designed by marketing department, tested for
    recognition
  • Ease of reproduction - stencilling
  • Also needed to work regardless of orientation
  • Can be reproduced precisely with compass and
    ruler - field work

12
some interesting cases radioactive sign
  • Originally sketched out by a group of people at
    the University of California, Berkeley in 1946
  • 1948 letter by Nels Garden described why they
    chose it
  • represented activity radiating from an atom
  • magenta symbol on a blue background
  • cheap to print
  • did not conflict with any other colour code
  • blue not common in radiation labs
  • later yellow background added to make it clear it
    was a warning
  • ANSI standardised modern symbol late 1950s

13
electromagnetic
14
some interesting cases radioactive sign
  • Requirement to represent other types of
    radiation
  • Non-ionising radiation
  • Laser radiation
  • Optical radiation
  • Dilution of the message
  • familiarity breeds contempt
  • which hazards are the most hazardous?
  • how to represent hierarchy?

15
some interesting cases radioactive sign
  • Feb 2007 new sign standardised by International
    Atomic Energy Agency, and contained in ISO
    214822007
  • Purpose is to make it clear to everyone that
    there is danger present that will lead to harm
    and that they should leave
  • Result of a five year project
  • Tested by Gallup Institute on a total of 1,650
    individuals in Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, Kenya,
    Saudi Arabia, China, India, Thailand, Poland,
    Ukraine and the United States

16
some interesting cases radioactive sign
  • Compound nature of the sign
  • how many pictograms are present?
  • is there a narrative?
  • Cultural components of the sign
  • on what does an understanding of its meaning
    depend?
  • to whom might it be meaningless?

17
semiotics
  • Semiotics - the study of signs
  • very broad area - means slightly different things
    to different people depending on their field
  • A sign can be anything at all that has meaning
  • a road sign, a street name, a map, an atlas
  • a letter, a word, a sentence, a book
  • a song, a film, a hand gesture, a pose, an idea
  • Three main areas to the study of semiotics
  • the signs themselves
  • the way signs are organised into systems
  • the context in which signs appear
  • Basic principle is that of signifier and
    signified
  • there cannot be a signifier if nothing is
    signified
  • in order for something to be signified, there
    must be a signifier

18
introduction to semiotics
  • Not a well defined discipline, despite being
    established for over 100 years
  • origins in the work of Ferdinand de Saussure -
    Swiss linguist 1857 - 1913 - Semiology
  • and Charles Sanders Peirce, American philosopher
    and scientist 1839 - 1914 - Semiotics
  • Saussures ideas formed part of a linguistics
    course at the University of Geneva 1906 - 1911
  • his theories form the basis of modern day
    semiotics
  • he died before publishing them but
  • his students assembled them from lecture notes
    and published them in 1916 as the Course in
    General Linguistics (Cours de linguistique
    générale)
  • Peirce published on philosophy, logic,
    mathematics and science
  • founded Pragmatism - reaction to metaphysics
    Do not block the way of inquiry
  • his work encompasses the theories of semiotics
    and he published widely from around 1860 onwards

19
introduction to semiotics
  • Saussure and Peirce worked independently but had
    very similar ideas
  • Peirce - defined three categories of signs
  • Icon - resembles the sign, eg a trip hazard
    safety sign, a photograph, a spoken word like
    bang!
  • Index - a direct link between the sign and the
    object, eg smoke is a sign of fire, a roundabout
    road sign is directly linked to the road junction
    it signifies
  • Symbol - no logical connection between the sign
    and what it means, eg the biohazard safety sign,
    a countrys flag
  • Saussure - as a linguist interested mainly in
    words and defined only two categories of sign
  • Iconic - very much like Peirces icon, eg
    onomatopoeic words
  • Arbitrary - as Peirces symbols, there is no
    direct relationship between the signifier and the
    sign, eg the vast majority of the components of
    language

20
introduction to semiotics
  • A single sign frequently fulfils the requirements
    of all categories
  • the pictogram resembles a hand, so is iconic
  • it is part of a set of signs for which we have
    international agreement, prohibited, so it is
    also a symbol
  • when it is placed in context it becomes an index
    sign, because part of its meaning comes from its
    placement in the real world

21
introduction to semiotics
  • Peirce identifies three properties for signs that
    map to his categories
  • firstness - the sense of a sign, eg anxiety on
    seeing the radioactivity sign
  • secondness - the physical relation of the sign to
    reality, eg the proximity of the sign to the
    danger it signifies
  • thirdness - the mental level that brings the
    other two together, eg there is danger here, I
    feel scared, I must leave!

22
sources
  • Devleopment of the original radioactivity symbol
    at Berkeley
  • http//www.orau.org/ptp/articlesstories/radwarnsym
    bstory.htm
  • Commission Directive 2001/59/EC, 6 August 2001
    specifying labelling of hazardous materials
  • http//eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?
    uriCELEX32001L0059ENHTML
  • Press release from the International Atomic
    Energy Agency about the new ionising radiation
    hazard sign
  • http//www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2007/radiation
    symbol.html
  • HAZMAT standard hazardous materials signs,
    contained in EU Directive
  • Directive 67/548/EEC
  • Short interview with Charles Baldwin about the
    development of the biohazard symbol
  • http//www.hms.harvard.edu/orsp/coms/BiosafetyReso
    urces/History-of-Biohazard-Symbol.htm
  • illustrations from wiki commons project
  • Chandler, Daniel (1994) Semiotics for Beginners
  • http//www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/
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