ymbols and ymbolism

Design and Printing Graphics

    Bibliography

 Design and Printer sources:  Perhaps the most pragmatic approach to images, symbolic or not, is that of designers and printers.  They always are searching for that which appeals to the eye, that will draw it away from other designs and printed images.  Because of this motivation, they tend to be the craftsmen of the symbolic graphics, creating signs, modifying symbols, reinterpreting by the context in which they use images what those images mean to the rest of us.  In this latter aspect, their skills and knowledge become of critical importance to everyone else, the artist, the religious faithful and their leaders, the politician, the scientist, and every other social aspect of our lives. 

  One of the rare attempts to cover all aspects of graphic representation is Adrian Frutiger's Signs and Symbols:  Their Design and Meaning (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989), translated by Andrew Bluhm.  Frutiger, listed on the back cover as "Linotype's master typographer," has created 3 books in one.  In the first "part", the author describes the elements of a sign, beginning at the basic "dot" and progressing through the attempt to represent three dimensional objects.  In this section, he delves into both artistic and psychological principles in describing the processes of creation and perception.  The second "part" covers written communication, from the basic thought to picture then through pictogram to writing to typefonts, including numbers and punctuation.  Having dealt with his forté in part 2, part 3 delves into other meaningful marks, whether signs, symbols, or signals, and how they transfer meaning to the observer.  In summing up the hundreds of pages and thousands of illustrations in his book, Frutiger concludes, "Signs, symbols, emblems, and signals, in all their diversity, are penetrating and deeply marking expressions of our times, pointing to the future by comprising and conserving something of the past." (Signs and Symbols, 359) 

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•   Frutiger, Adrian.  Signs and Symbols:  Their Design and Meaning, translated by Andrew Bluhm.  New York:  Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989.  360 pp.    P99F78 1989
•   Koch, Rudolf.  The Book of Signs:  Which Contains All Manner of Symbols Used from the Earliest Times to the Middle Ages by Primitive Peoples and Early Christians.  New York:  Dover Publications, 1955; reprint of publication of the First Edition Club of London, 1930.  Translation by Vyvyan Holland.  104 pp.; 0-486-20162-7    ]PK254]
•   Lehner, Ernst.  Symbols, Signs, & Signets.  New York:  Dover Publications, 1969; reproduction of edition published by World Publishing Co., 1950.  221 pp.; 0-486-22241-1.    [PK131]; AZ108.L4 1969.
•   Liungman, Carl G.  Dictionary of Symbols,  Santa Barbara, CA:  ABC-Clio, 1991.  English translation of Symboler--västerländska ideogram.  Malmo:  Merkur International KB, 1974.  [HO160] BL603 .L5413 1991.
•   Robinson, L. J.  A Dictionary of Graphical Symbols.  London:  F. C. Avis, 1972.  360 pp.    AZ108.R6.
•   Shepherd, Walter, comp.  Shepherd's Glossary of Graphic Signs and Symbols.  London:  J. M. Dent & Sons, 1971.  596 pp.; 0-460-03818-4.    AZ108.S53.
•   Speltz, Alexander.  The Styles of Ornament.  New York:  Dover Publications, 1959.  Translation by David O'Connor.  647 pp.; 0-486-20557-6    [PQ438]
•   Thompson, Philip, and Davenport, Peter.   The Dictionary of Graphic Images.  New York:  St. Martin's Press, 1980.    BF458.T45 1980.
•   Whittick, Arnold.  Symbols, Signs and their Meaning and Uses in Design, 2nd ed.  Newton, MA:  Charles T. Branford, 1971.  1st ed., London:  Leonard Hill Books, 1960.    AZ108.W45 1971a.  

  

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