Urban symbols, icons and Semiotics

Symbols and icons can have many different meanings and history's behind them

and it can mean different things to other people with different cultures or religious view.

Semiotics is the study of symbols and icons as well as the study of there definitions to the many different peoples, experiences  and cultures.

in modern day Semiotics study a much deeper meaning of  a symbol 

studying how effects  on a certain person , the way it is used in communication

,,the way they are organized and the context in which they are used. 

Charles Sanders Perice a philosopher recognized  in modern times as the founder of modern semiotics

Hi's work was less concerned with the meaning but more concerned on how people  recognise the world and the things in them. 

Perice invented a system of three different types of symbols to allow them to be recognized easier. 

1. icon 














An icon is a sign that resembles something such as a photograph of a persion , it can also be an
illustrative or diagrammatic like this stop sign



2. Index 

a index sign is something that relates to an object or location this 
sign relates to the location telling the person that it is the location of a bathroom. 



3. Symbols 

 A symbol will have no logical connection to the object there are many symbols on and off the computer screen one could be the symbol for a web hompage but this would be usually represented

by a house these two have no connection bar the name 

a example of a symbol in real life could be a flag for nation which will also have no connection but will represent it. 

all these types are often used on the internet to help users to navigate from page to page and help the user distinguish information. 

Urban Semiotics 

An urban semiotics system is a system of symbols and icons located in urbanized areas to 

hep locate areas ,designate problems or distinguish different areas or  useful points of interest

such as train stations ,shopping areas or schools 

and example of these would be the sybol for a zoo on a sign could be a elephant or the symbol for 

a parking space could be a capital P as these are associated with there designated locations.