Signs and symbols : their design and meaning

360 Pages·2012·38.54 MB·English

by  Frutiger, Adrian, 1928-

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Signs
Symbols
Their Design and Meaning
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LIBRARY
Signs and Symbols

Adrian Frutiger
Signs and Symbols
Their Design and Meaning
Translated by Andrew Bluhm
VAN NOSTRAND REINHOLD
SHE
New
York
REF.
P99
F73
1989 Copyright © 1989 Weiss Verlag GmbH, Dreieich, West Germany
Library ofCongress Catalog Card Number 89-5714
ISBN 0-442-23918-1
89045143
EB All rights reserved. No part ofthis work covered by the copyright
hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means-
graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
taping, or information storage and retrieval systems - without written
permission ofthe publisher.
Printed in West Germany
Published in the U.S.A. by
Van Nostrand Reinhold
115 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10003
Nelson Canada
1120 Birchmount Road
Scarborough, Ontario M1K 5G4, Canada
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Frutiger, Adrian, 1928-
Signs and Symbols. Their Design and Meaning/Adrian Frutiger:
translated by Andrew Bluhm
p. cm.
Bibliography: p.
ISBN 0-442-23918-1
1. Signs and symbols. I. Title.
P99.F78 1989
302.23-dc20 89-5714
CIP
Contents
Part 1: Sign Recognition, Sign Formation
Introduction: Three Themes 17
1. Disorder-order 17
2. Remembering a figure 18
3. Light and shadow - black and white 21
The Elements of a Sign 23
1. The dot 23
2. The line 23
a The imaginary line 23
b The line in itself 24
c Horizontal and vertical 25
d The oblique line 26
e The curve 27
3. Relations between lines 28
a The manual movements of
drawing lines 28
b Alignment and rhythm 30
c Proximity 30
4. The morphology of signs 31
a The "geography" ofperception 31
b Symmetry and asymmetry 31
c Morphological Table 1 33
d Morphological Table 2 38
5. Sign topology 40
II. The Basic Signs 43
1. The square 43
2. The triangle 44
3. The circle 45
4. The arrow 48
5. The cross
III. Joining Signs Together 53
1. Relations between signs of
the same form 53
2. Relations between signs of
different forms 57
3. The expression of the inner area 59
4. Relations between closed and
open signs 60
5. Experiment with two fork signs 61
6. The "complete" sign 62
a Morphological Table 3:
abstract signs 62
b Morphological Table 4:
object signs 64
7. Between diagram and figure 66
8. Puzzle signs 67
IV. The Sign in Ornaments 69
V. Signs of Dualism 73
VI. The Solid - 77
1. From line to solid area 77
a Thickness ofthe lines 78
b The swelling and shrinking oflines 79
c The tape shape 81
2. The white sign on a black
background 82
a From outline to negative 82
b Varying brightness ofan
interior shape 84
c Indications ofform 84
3. The chessboard pattern 85
VII. The Simulation of Volume 87
1. Superimposed layers 87
2. Plaiting 89
3. "Suggestive" white 90
4. Perspective 91
5. The shadow 92
a The illuminated object 92
b Thrown shadows 93
6. Unusual volume 94
7. Optical illusions 95
VIII. The Diversity ofAppearance 97
1. Drawing and material 97
a The tools 97
b The stroke ending 98
c The right tool for the right material 100
2. The value of interior and intermediary
space 100
3. The image 102
a Black-white 102
b Colors 102
c Halftones 103
d Structures 103
Picture quality 103
a Schematic or "dimensional"
illustration 104
b Naturalistic illustration 104
c Artistic or "contemplative"
illustration 105
it a visual synthesis 106
Part 2: Speech-Fixing Signs
I. From Thought to Picture 111
1. Prototypes 111
2. Speech and gesture 111
II. Speech Fixing 113
1. Two ways of script development 113
a Scripts "remaining" pictorial 114
b "Alphabetical" scripts 114
2. A common origin? 115
3. Inherited archetypes? 115
4. From pictogram to ideogram 115
5. Determinatives 117
6. From ideogram to phonogram 118
III. The Graphic Wealth of Pictograms 119
1. From Sumerian pictograms to
cuneiform 119
2. Egyptian hieroglyphics 123
3. Cretan scripts 125
4. Hethitic pictographic script from Syria 127
5. Pictographic script from the
Indus Valley 129
6. Pictographic script of Easter Island 130
7. Runic script 131
8. Chinese scripts 133
a Wisdom ofthe I-ching 133
b Chinese pictographic script 136
c Chinese writing and architecture 139
9. Pre-Columbian .American scripts 139
a Aztec pictographic script 140
b Maya pictographic script 141
IV. The World's .Alphabets 143
1. Invention and spread of letters 143
2. A summary of the world's script
groups 146
V. The ABC ofthe Western World 151
1. Early development 151
2. Capitals and small letters 153
a The transitionfrom capitals to
small letters 153
b Toward a theory ofreduced hand
movements 155
VI. Development of Form through
Writing and Printing Techniques 159
1. Black stroke formation 159
a Calligraphy 159
_
Horizontal pen positions
Oblique pen positions
Steep pen positions
b Pen positioning in other
linguistic sectors 163
c Engraving and printing 164
2. Interior white space 166
a Architecture and script 166
b Space 168
3. On the family likenesses ofletters 170
VII. Manipulated Letterforms 175
1. Purely proportional variations 175
a Width 175
b Weight 177
c Slope 178
d The extended palette oftypefaces 179
2. Deviations from the basic forms 182
a Ornamental letters 182
b "Antiques" 183
c "Figurative" alphabets 183
d Letterforms ofthefuture 183
Environmental "inscription." Digital displays.
Experiments in extreme simplification.
Automatic reading. Boundaries oflegibility.
e Type image and type picture 190
3. Monograms 192
a Abbreviations become acronyms 192
b From ligature to ornament 192
VIII. Text Type and Its Legibility 197
1 Type as a worldwide medium of
.
communication 197
2. Type forms and legibility 198
a The reading process 198
b Steps in reading motivation 199
c Formal synthesis ofthe alphabet 200