From the stop sign to the laugh-cry emoji, symbols play a critical and ubiquitous role in everyday life. A forthcoming exhibition at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, “Give Me a Sign: The ...

Give Me a Sign examines the fascinating histories behind many of the symbols that instruct, protect, entertain, empower and connect people. Marking the 50th anniversary of the Symbol Sourcebook, this ...

Scholars have recently question whether ancient Indus inscriptions code for language. American and Indian scientists used statistics to show that the 4,500-year-old Indus symbols' pattern follows that ...

Does language really matter? It is one of the most tangible symbols of cultural and group identity. It is the living expression of intellect, of specific cultural understanding, a link to the past and ...

In this video, Ghana’s best-known contemporary artist, El Anatsui, speaks about the role that language and symbols play in his work. He describes how the abstract nature of West African “adinkra” ...

At the very beginning of the “Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols” (1972), the book’s author and one of the era’s most accomplished industrial designers, Henry ...

From the earliest human records, angels have been described as mysterious beings who communicate in ways humans often ...

InvestigationThese yellow pictograms have proliferated and diversified to the point of becoming an indispensable part of our digital communication. Since the first limited set of yellow pictograms, ...