Pictogram - Modern Use

Modern Use

An early modern example of the extensive use of pictographs may be seen in the map in the London suburban timetables of the London and North Eastern Railway, 1936-1947, designed by George Dow, in which a variety of pictographs was used to indicate facilities available at or near each station. Pictographs remain in common use today, serving as pictorial, representational signs, instructions, or statistical diagrams. Because of their graphical nature and fairly realistic style, they are widely used to indicate public toilets, or places such as airports and train stations.

A standard set of pictographs was defined in the international standard ISO 7001: Public Information Symbols. Another common set of pictographs are the laundry symbols used on clothing tags and chemical hazard labels.

Pictographic writing as a modernist poetic technique is credited to Ezra Pound, though French surrealists accurately credit the Pacific Northwest American Indians of Alaska who introduced writing, via totem poles, to North America.

Contemporary artist Xu Bing created Book from the Ground, a universal language made up of pictograms collected from around the world. A Book from the Ground chat program has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally.

• Native American Pictographs from the Great Gallery, Horseshoe Canyon, Canyonlands National Park

• Sample National Park Service pictographs

• Pictograph from 1510 telling a story of coming of missionaries to Hispaniola

• Water, rabbit, deer pictographs on a replica of an Aztec Stone of the Sun

• British Rail passenger safety pictographs at the end of the platform at Meols railway station

• A pictograph warning against swimming because of crocodiles at the Australia Zoo.

• "No Dogs!" sign in Spain. The dog illustration is a pictograph. The red circle and bar is an ideogram representing the idea of "no" or "not allowed."

• Push Sign for doors. Bowed door to the right shows force of door being pushed.

• Pull Sign for doors. Bowed door to the left shows force of door being pulled.

• The top traffic sign warns people of horses and riders.

• This sign warns that a stop sign is ahead.