Symbols and Trends
I am making a lot of infographics at the moment. (BTW, I use Canva for that. My initial aversion to Canva has completely turned around!)
Symbols are used a lot in infographics. They are an interesting phenomenon. A lot of people seem to think that symbols are easier to understand than written text. Most of the time this is not the case. The idiom of symbols is a language that has to be learned just as any foreign language.
Zodiac signs
My parents always bought golden jewelry on vacation. That was a trend back then. It was supposed to be a good investment for later. My sign is Virgo, so I got a pendant with a virgin on it.
Of course, I knew that my father wore a pendant as well. I never gave it must attention until he was deceased and the nursing home handed me over his jewelry. Only then I realized that he had not worn a zodiac sign (he was an Aries) around his neck, but an image of Mary. And only then my mother told me that he was a fervent admirer of Mary.
A village full of Mary’s
Not much later I walked around in my village to take pictures for a photoblog of the theme “symbol”. I discovered that many houses there have a Mary relief next to the door. Ranging from cloisonne earthenware to beautiful low relief. Made with a lot of attention and glazed in different colors. Beautiful to see, even if you are not religious. Also an atheist like me feels pain, seeing that there were people who did not appreciate the decorations and unscrupulously have painted it white.
Ulvenhout, the Netherlands
I saw these ones - in terra cotta - the most. The pastor of the church told me they were sold to the villagers to be able to restore the church. Almost all villagers bought one and hung it next to their door.
Unintentionally funny
The worship of Mary is a typical Catholic trend. In the province of Brabant, both the Dutch and Belgium part, it is still vivid. Protestants consider it a form of idol worship, and I secretly agree. Yet I really enjoy the care and attention with which saint statues are made.
And occasionally I can’t help myself laughing out loud. What do you think of this Mater Misericordiae (Mother of pity) with its horror-nails? It took a while before I realized that they were not nails but represented beams of light.
Beguinage Hoogstraten, Belgium
Nowadays
Symbols fascinate me. The comparison of symbols over time fascinates me. Saint-reliefs and -statues have been replaced by constructed computer images. Sometimes this means a decline of the appearance, but luckily there are also spontaneous street symbols, made by construction workers. Just as unintentionally, but to me equally beautiful to the Mary-reliefs in my former village.
Do you like symbols?
xxx
Hannie
Recent Comments
22
Hannie, As always posts with a story are the winners. Getting to know a tiny bit about you as a child, the things that interest you made this a most interesting post.
We do have the symbols for whatever world we are in, especially social media.
Thanks for the share,
Sami
Oh, thank you so much, Sami, yes, stories do always well. :)
It's especially interesting to see which symbols are worldwide and which are purely local, don't you think?
I do think the ones that are the same worldwide are limited. I find that the ones in the US are not the same nationwide.
As Traffic signs and symbols are what we deal with the most,
they are probably the most uniform.
An interesting subject.
Because of the emoticons, more symbols are recognized worldwide, like hearts, etc. :)
And you're right, it is an interesting subject!
I remember when the recycle logo was created. The recycle logo is triangular with a folded arrow in each corner, with the arrow tip pointing in the same direction for flow. I submitted a design for that.
Ah, the Dutch. The blue square was a head scratcher for me, too, lol.
Thanks for sharing, Hannie!
Rudy
Yes, and as you saw, you are not the only one being confused with the white-blue symbol, Rudy. Still, some Dutch are really famous for their icons, like Paul Mijksenaar, who has designed all the stuff for Schiphol Airport and as far as I know, has also been asked to do LaGuardia. :)
xxx
Hannie
This blog post was very interesting I love the way you added symbol images through the blog. I do have Canva pro but I haven’t used it in none of my blog post. I think I need to start I’ve been just following the training as stated
Thanks, Lula, I liked the village as well but I am also glad I now live in a sunnier country :)
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Symbols that most of us can identify with are the man and woman (w/skirt) on public restroom doors that identify the men/women's room. Well, there is a restaurant/pub in downtown Pensacola that has them reversed (purposely). So, imagine my surprise after I walked into what I thought was the ladies room and a guy was standing there. I had a couple drinks under my belt so I thought I misinterpreted the sign but, of course, I hadn't. People sit around and wait for "newbies" like me to make the same error. Gotta love symbols.
~Debbi
LOL, Debbi, how on earth would you have known unless you first mistakenly enter the wrong room? Or was it indicated in a different way?
I saw a really fun one on an Andalucian beach last month. The figures on the bathroom doors had their legs put in an X as if they really had some hurry. So funny. :-D
xxx
Hannie
Well, they did have arrows but basically you had to decipher the code and most people by the time they have to use the facilities have enough struggle just finding them to begin with. It was a fun thing.
LOL, yes, I was chucking as well at your story. It is funny. :)