Dualty + Aggreement

Symbol Signs: AIGA and the U.S. Department of Transportation. This image dispicts symbol signs designed for use at the crossroads of modern life: in airports and other transportation hubs and at large international events. Produced through a collaboration between AIGA and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), they are an example of how public-minded designers can address a universal communication need.

However, the narrative above illustrates the concept of DUALITY in which the relationships between signifier (the symbol sign) and the signified (what the symbol represents) are arbitrary. The narrative also illustrates the concept of AGREEMENT. All that is necessary for any language to exist is an agreement amonst a group oof people that one thing will stand for another.

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Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) developed a study of signs called semiotics. In order to understand how we extract meaning from a sign we need to understand the structure of signs. To help do this Peirce defined 3 categories: ICON, INDEX, SYMBOL.

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