Pictograph

Pictograph - Design Brief

·         We Come in Peace

In 1972, an illustrated plaque was placed on the NASA Pioneer Spacecraft. This image was blasted into outer space and was intended to communicate information about the human race and Earth’s position in the Milky Way to aliens. The illustration features a naked man and woman drawn in contour line, the main waving in an act of symbolic greeting. Create your own pictographic illustration; what do you want to communicate to an alien species about the human race?

Through pictographic illustrations I want to convey earth and humanity on a general level if the picture were to be blasted into outer space in an attempt to communicate with life. I want to tell life in outer space that we are welcoming and we offer peace. What our figure looks like and how we communicate and also our primitive nature. The pictures will be very literal and simplistic and may not be sequential. Each picture will have its own meaning and may guide the viewer to comprehending the pictogram on a broader view.

Symbols are very culturally limited; people are more likely to understand simple pictures produced by their own culture than of another. If you were to show someone from a third world country the Japanese yen symbol they may not understand what it represents unless you were to explain what it is in the language the person speaks. My concept is to have symbols that are very literal as stated earlier so that a person from any country would be able to understand its meaning. So that aliens will find it easier to comprehend.  I want each picture to convey an immediate reality of our kind and our human nature.

The pictogram will be limited to greyscale due to criteria which will make the development harder as the colour help people understand pictures. I want to powerful contrast so the shapes can be defined and clear therefore I will choose black as the background instead of white. What rationalized my decision is that people now use whiteboards and use markers because it is much more convenient. However it fails to be as clear as the old blackboard because the black background will contrast chork much better.

The messages I want to convey to aliens are very broad but in a sense specific in each picture. First off is our figure or shape on a very bland level so that it is not biased to groups. What I mean by groups is people’s ethnicity. The reason for this is that I want to communicate and express our unity and not just a group of people from earth. I will help guide this meaning across with more pictures. With a set of pictures I hope to have aliens onboard and to understand our humanity, that we may be primitive in our nature, but we are compassionate.

Overall I want my design to be easy to understand for anyone to ensure that aliens will be able to take onboard all the messages the pictogram holds. By developing the right images I want the pictogram to be very symbolic in an attempt to express our nature and what we have achieved together whether it be negative or positive.