Creative Brief #3

1. Identification: Signage symbol system designed by Roger Cook and Don Shanosky in 1974.



2. The project and the problem: The project was to create a set of symbols that the U.S. Department of Transportation could use to simplify messages to international travelers so that they could better understand what something meant through the use of pictures rather than words.

3. The client: The U.S Department of Transportation had commissioned the American Institute of Graphic Arts or AIGA, Cook and Shanosky were students at the time and their design was the one chosen out of all of them.

4. The intended audience: Somewhat more so for international travelers, most likely due to they might have difficulties understanding the English language, so the pictures helped more so than words. However, it was also a system for American travelers to understand as well due to the fact that the pictures made good use for the public transportation systems.

5. The core message: A simplified number of pictorial images used to establish what something is without the use of words. Symbols that could be used around the country for everyone to understand so as to make things easier. Each symbol has a different meaning that people will learn to associate with the picture.

6. The hoped-for outcome: The U.S. Department wanted the symbols as a way to communicate instructions quickly and easily. I'd say it was pretty successful considering we're still using symbols as a way to symbolize certain objects. Hopefully international travelers also feel a bit more at ease when using this system.

7. The graphic strategy: The designers basically simplified the signs by creating small pictures of the object it was to represent. They also came up with some original ones like the warning/"No ..." signs. There's also the change in color. Most of the pictures are black, but some of them were given a red color instead.