Final black and white, vector sign set.
Final black and white, connotated sign set - two versions.
Health food cross, index - the sign shows a cross, often associated with the idea of health, surrounded by different food items representing the necessary needs we need to survive. Viewers are able to see the sign and figure out the concept of 'health and food', classifying the sign as an indexical sign.
Community unity, symbol - this sign is a representation of people's arms around each other, surrounding a problem in an attempt to work against it. The problem is that community issues are not a race issue – they are an everyone issue. A community that is predominantly black and faces struggles is not just a black community problem. Our communities make up our cities, and to ignore the problems of a community based on outdated, racist ideas is a step backward in helping revitalize those who are in need. This sign represents an everybody problem and to know that problem, society would have to learn the symbol's meaning.
Sustainable homes, symbol - this sign represents the idea of sustainable homes in a community. This takes on a couple of aspects of sustainable homes. First, we need to take care of the homes and property in our community just as a general common sense: it's good to have good things, so let's try and make things good. Second, a sustainable home also includes what goes in and what comes out of the home. This can look like many things, whether it's making sure that a family makes enough money to support themselves or making sure that children are able to leave their homes and attend school in a safe environment and return to a home where they can continue to learn. Society would have to learn what this sign is meant to represent, thus making it a symbol.
Connotation - youthful
In community revitalization projects, it is important to teach all people in the community – young and old. That being said, to keep communities strong and thriving in the future, the responsibility is beginning to fall to a younger, more current generation. The children of our communities will have to be educated and that education has to be made accessible, both visually and . The youthful connotation makes these signs fun and accessible. They become inviting to all people. A certain energy is infused into them that appeals to all ages.
Some business card thoughts? I would consider these to be like a backside to a card with the information pertaining to the employee or organization on the other.
tucker, your writing here is well done. thoughtful commentary and your reasoning behind each sign category makes sense. it's curious that in your cross/food sign you classify it as an index, yet with your home/arrows, you classify that as a symbol. the reason this is curious is that both signs use a combination of icons and symbols. i wonder if you feel that the food/cross is able to be figured out because the cross is such a known symbol, whereas the rotating arrows is not as well known, so people will have to learn what that sign means.
ReplyDeleteformally, your signs are working fairly well. you do not mention the idea of that missing quadrant of food though, and that raises a question for me, because it seems like you talked about that absence being meaningful. they are all pretty consistent in terms of line quality, overall visual weight, simplicity and shape construction. perhaps the "community unity" sign is a bit lighter weight than the other two, due to the lack of larger black shapes.
your presentation indicates some indecisiveness. you have two versions of the final connotations and two versions of your applications. hopefully you can see the differences in the connotations and associations between the two sets of cards. and i hope you would understand how the handmade look serves your conceptual purpose as opposed to the more sterile and straightforward vector work.