Visual language is the language that express form in a symbolic manner and that goes beyond diverse cultures. Even without special education, it is possible to know by instinct what is intended to be expressed by merely perceiving form by leveraging t...
Visual language is the language that express form in a symbolic manner and that goes beyond diverse cultures. Even without special education, it is possible to know by instinct what is intended to be expressed by merely perceiving form by leveraging the knowledge that is already formed. Pictogram is the representative visual language.
Pictogram is non-lingual, and it is one of the mediums for visual communication, which continued to exist along with the communication of the humankind. As the society today is changing rapidly due to globalization and the emergence of the information age, it continued to advance in different corners of the society in line with this epochal situation by playing the role of making the lives of people comfortable.
Likewise, pictogram is not merely a medium for filling up the gap between the technological civilization of the world and language and culture, but also it is used in diverse ways in the international arena since it is possible to be communicated without prior education or study. A representative example is the Olympics pictogram.
This paperexamines the concept and origin of pictogram that is used as a medium for international communication, and its characteristics. Moreover, it conducts research on the current status of pictogram in Olympics as it is used until today, to understand how it changed according to the cultural and epochal changes.
Olympic pictogram can be classified into level of reality, simplicity, structure, cultural and symbolism depending on the cultural and epochal situation starting from the opening to today. The characteristics of each are as follows.
First related to the level of reality, design of pictogram was very explanatory and designed very realistically since the periods between the 1st Olympic in Athens and the 17th Olympic in Rome was when the concept of pictogram was not even consolidated.
Second related to simplicity, design of pictogram for the 18th Olympic in Tokyo, 19th Olympic in Mexico City, and the 10th Winter Olympic in Grenoble bypassed explanatory and realistic design elements for the sake of simple design.
Third, design of pictogram for the 20th Olympic in Munich, 24th Olympic in Seoul, 11th Winter Olympic in Sapporo, and 15th Winter Olympic in Calgary was conducted with strict module system with structure when it comes to the structure element.
Fourth, cultural design was used for the 25th Barcelona Olympic, the 26th Atlanta Olympic, and the 18th Nagano Winter Olympics. Programs prior to this period are dynamic compared to the previous designs that were based on structure, and attempt was made to express culture of each nation with emotional design.
Fifth, symbolism was used during the 27 Sidney Olympics to the 29th Beijing Olympic that will be held in 2008, and each nation’s culture and characteristics were symbolized to come up with unique design.
When the designs of pictogram that continued to change to this day are examined, design that was expressed realistically during the early years developed into simple format that did not include explanatory elements after the 1960s, and module system was applied onto design simplified starting from the 1972 Munich Olympic. Starting from the 1990s, pictogram that factors in the culture of each nation was designed based on structure, and increasingly unique designs are attempted these days after breaking down the existing framework.