I don't know who was the graphic designer of the international biological hazard symbol, but it's so evocative. It makes me uncomfortable looking at it, and I suspect I'd feel the same way even if I didn't know what it actually meant.
Apparently, it was developed in the mid-1960s by a Dow Chemical artist. I don't know what inspired him/her, but this symbol just oozes threat/harm and dynamism without using a single letter or typographic element. This is graphic design done right.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazard_symbol#Biohazard_symbol
Charles Baldwin, 1966
ReplyDeleteI found a few interesting links. But it seems it was designed by testing what did/didn't work:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.etre.com/blog/2008/01/the_history_of_the_biohazard_symbol/
I remember reading about some ideas for creating a large-scale warning sculpture to be put above a permanent nuclear waste depository, some kind of spiky mess that would declare "don't come here" for a million years, long after any language has lost the ability to be read, long after any text will have faded. Giant unfriendly spikes and thorns made of stone. How do we communicate with a future so remote that they have no memory of our language?
ReplyDeleteThe radiation trefoil doesn't do it for you?
ReplyDeletecommons.m.wikimedia.org - File:Radiation warning symbol-US.svg - Wikimedia Commons
Chad Haney In a million years, will we still know what that symbol means? The problem with language and symbols is that we all have to agree on what they mean, but the time it takes for them to change meaning is too short, compared to the amount of time it takes for nuclear waste to be stored.
ReplyDeleteIt's like the radiation warning, but with horns and tusks.
ReplyDeleteIt always makes me think of the spindle adapters you had to use with 45 RPM records to play them on a standard turntable..
ReplyDeleteen.wikipedia.org - 45 rpm adapter - Wikipedia
Funny, same here!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I can look at the symbol objectively without subconsciously bringing in my previous perceptions for its meaning. Much in the same way I can't look at map where the swastika is used as a religious marker without subconsciously defaulting to it as a Nazi symbol.
ReplyDeleteBrad D - Every time I fly to Taipei, I see a building with giant paired swastikas on it (multi-story, in neon lights). That was very unsettling the first time I saw it.
ReplyDeleteIt does carry an air of menace about it, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteImagine your in a harbour, or on a ship, or even at a train station.
ReplyDeleteYou see a ship, or a boat, or a train approaching with that symbol emblazoned large upon it.
How would you feel? What would you do?
This symbol has also been more recently adopted by gay men who glorify unsafe sexual practices. Appropriate use of the symbol, in that case, but the frequency with which I see it is ... sometimes depressing.
ReplyDeleteGonna have to disagree. Just showed it to a dinner table full of adults and children. No one had the first idea what it meant! One woman said "is it a flower?" and a little girl said "it looks like a logo for a restaurant!"
ReplyDeleteAdults are all well-educated; their kids all bright, curious.
If you know what it means, then yeah! Scary!
But if you don't...
Chad Haney I have to admit that I'm old enough that every time I see the radiation symbol, I think it's a reel-to-reel tape. :-)
ReplyDeleteShannon Roy I guess they'll be the first to die horribly when the apocovirus hits.
ReplyDeleteCraig Froehle
ReplyDeleteDon't you mean the Streptococcalypse?? Or is it the Apoctofungus?? Possibly the Dementacalypse-Apocoheimers!!
Craig Froehle, when I was a kid, I only knew one person with reel-to-reel.
ReplyDeleteI totally need this tattooed on my forehead.
ReplyDeleteYou're that hazardous, Steve S?
ReplyDeleteChad Haney I'm dangerous.
ReplyDeleteIf I made jewelry, I'd make earrings in this form.
ReplyDeleteSteve S Mildly irritating at best...mostly harmless.
ReplyDeleteCraig Froehle, so BSL1, maybe BSL2.
ReplyDeleteCraig Froehle Really? Today, I'm wearing my black belt.
ReplyDeleteSteve S Garter belts don't count.
ReplyDeleteCraig Froehle Come over here and test that theory!
ReplyDeleteOOH I LOVE CATFIGHTS
ReplyDeleteSteve S Yes ma'am!
ReplyDelete