How the universal symbols were designed

[LONDONER]

How the Universal Symbols for Escalators, Restrooms, and Transport Were Designed


http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how...e-designed

[Emiliano]

That was interesting, I never even thought about where those symbols came from. I guess thats another symptom of good design - it just feels like it must have always been that way.

Thats also a really cool website that Im going to spend some time checking out.

[LONDONER]

That was interesting, I never even thought about where those symbols came from. I guess thats another symptom of good design - it just feels like it must have always been that way.

Thats also a really cool website that Im going to spend some time checking out.

Of all people I thought that that would interest you Emiliano.

[Emiliano]

Of all people I thought that that would interest you Emiliano.

I like that my love for design, universal understanding, and non verbal communication is not only apparent, but noticed and remembered.

At my museum job, one of my favorite things to help kids notice is that in older train cars there are only written rules - in English of course. I talk to them about how there are so many tourists and recent immigrants in the city today and whether or not people who don't understand English would have been able to know the rules in the older train cars. Usually kids will bring up that today we have stick figures and symbols along side the the written rules for that reason, or at least they do after I prompt them by asking what they would do to help non English speakers understand.

Now I know that those universal symbols stem from the same sort of thing, during a big event like the bicentennial, how to guide people using an alphabet that can be universally understood.

[trywait]

Helvetica man!

who would have thought that was the origin of what so many of us take for granted now.

[Camfer]

I remember seeing the universal symbol for No Lederhosen when visiting St Peter's Basilica in Rome!