On Friday in class, we were to draw an eye. The first thing that came to my mind was that it had to be a trick question, therefore had to have a trick answer. So I thought of it for the little time that we had, and came up with only drawing the outline of the eye. When really all I had to draw was a dot. It made me think of how hard we make things seem. Being an Interior Design major one thing that we are taught is preciseness, straight lines and perfection of detail is the ultimate key. Although being in Interior Design I am constantly trying to think or push myself into thinking outside of the box, therefore I am excited to see and learn about how to think outside the box with using just simple shapes and symbols. This was something that I wrote in big letters in my notes was " use symbols," "more shapes," "less lines," and to draw Silhouettes. I figured this had to be very important if it was said over and over.

We talked a lot on Friday about Semiotics. Semiotics is the study of signs, its figuring out what signs/symbols mean. As a child we are taught that an 8 sided figure, that is red means to stop. We use these same symbols/signs and use them to identify an idea. There are four types of signs. Icon is the first sign. The best way for me to remember what Icon is, is its the exact shape or even picture of something you were told all along. If the picture is a keyboard or a sheet of paper, a person would be able to say, "that is a keyboard and a sheet of paper" because it looks just like it. Being able to recognize an object for what it is. The second is Index. The word "Partner" is a key word when trying to remember what Index means. For instance, a fire truck is usually partnered with fire. Its a sign associated with what you usually see that symbol at. The third is symbol. A symbol is communicated through conversation, meaning words. So its the opposite of Icon, its the word which makes that word come to understanding. The word "ear" makes you think of an ear. The last sign is Metasymbol. Metasymbol is icons that over time are known for that icon. The Greek alphabet is an example of history and tradition to the sororities and fraternities on many campuses, its a way to recognize and identify each other.

Something else that was mentioned in class was a guy named Paul Rand. So I looked this guy up to see what was so important about him. Paul was a graphic designer and is known for his corporate logo designs for corporations such as, IBM, ABC, and even UPS. He taught at Yale for many years and before he was known for his logo design his early work in page design was the initial source of how he became well known for his commercial art. Yes, commercial art, because of Paul and his work, he was one of the main reasons for the entitlement of Graphic Design came into the market.