Give Me a Sign: The Language of Symbols
This exhibition started on May 13, 2023 and is on display until September 02, 2024.
There were 87 objects in this exhibition but right now we can only show you 82 of them. Some objects may not be viewable because they were on loan; this might be due to issues involving image rights or simply because there is no digitized image for the objects.
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Symbols are important communication tools in our daily lives, constantly evolving based on new needs and users. Symbols have the power to instruct, protect, entertain, connect, and even divide us. They formed some of the first written human expressions and today animate our digital chats.
From 1969 to 1972, the visionary designer Henry Dreyfuss (American, 1904–1972) oversaw the making of the Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols, a manual that compiled and categorized thousands of symbols in use internationally. The publication was celebrated as an "event with worldwide ramifications, very much in keeping with the man who created it—a man who not only sees change coming, but helps to usher it in."
Dreyfuss understood how symbols functioned for people. He and his industrial design team placed symbols on products and services where we now take them for granted—on airplanes, cameras, telephones, tractors, and more.
Anticipating the everyday use of symbols in our current digital era, the Symbol Sourcebook helped to elevate the importance of symbols and increase their number in our world. Though it was published over 50 years ago, the Symbol Sourcebook is still used by designers today. The origin story of the Symbol Sourcebook—told for the first time here through primary materials from Cooper Hewitt’s Henry Dreyfuss Archive—has inspired us to look at symbols now and explore their evolution and future.
- Reproduction, Hobo Code: Good Road to Follow, Symbol Sourcebook: An...
- print on paper.
- Henry Dreyfuss Archive.
- s-e-3772
- Reproduction, Hobo Code: Kind Lady Lives Here, Symbol Sourcebook: An...
- print on paper.
- Henry Dreyfuss Archive.
- s-e-3773
- Reproduction, Hobo Code: Free Telephone, Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative...
- print on paper.
- Henry Dreyfuss Archive.
- s-e-3774
- Reproduction, Hobo Code: This is Not a Safe Place, Symbol Sourcebook: An...
- print on paper.
- Henry Dreyfuss Archive.
- s-e-3775
- Reproduction, Hobo Code: Barking Dog Lives Here, Symbol Sourcebook: An...
- print on paper.
- Henry Dreyfuss Archive.
- s-e-3776
- Reproduction, Reading a Hobo QR Code with a Smartphone
- photograph.
- Courtesy of Golan Levin.
- s-e-3784
- Reproduction, The Hand That Will Rule The World - One Big Union, in...
- lithograph.
- Public domain, via Internet Archive.
- s-e-3789
- Reproduction, Black Power Salute with Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Mexico...
- photograph.
- Abaca Press / Alamy Stock Photo.
- s-e-3791
- Pinback Button, War Against Repression, Guerra Contra Repression, April 5,...
- ink on paper, metal, plastic.
- Exhibition purchase.
- s-e-3795
- Pinback Button, Unite Aainst War, Racism & Repression, YWLL
- ink on paper, metal, plastic.
- Exhibition purchase.
- s-e-3798
- Reproduction, Laying Out the Symbol Sourcebook
- photograph.
- Henry Dreyfuss Archive.
- s-e-3764
- There are 2 images of this object.
- Reproduction, Henry Dreyfuss, Doris Marks Dreyfuss, and Pamela Holaday with...
- photograph.
- Henry Dreyfuss Archive.
- s-e-3765
- Reproduction, User Testing Operator Controls in Prototype John Deere...
- 35mm slide.
- Henry Dreyfuss Archive.
- s-e-3769
- There are 2 images of this object.
- Reproduction, Brendon Hildreth at Accessible Icon Event, North Carolina
- photograph.
- Photo by Bill Hand, New Bern Sun Journal; Courtesy of The Accessible Icon....
- s-e-3801
- Reproduction, Diagram of Design Elements of Accessible Icon
- reproduction.
- Courtesy of The Accessible Icon Project.
- s-e-3802
- Reproduction, New Accessible Icon Sticker Pasted on Reserved Parking Sign
- photograph.
- Photo by Brian Funck Courtesy of The Accessible Icon Project .
- s-e-3803
- Reproduction, Accessible Trails Sign
- digital print.
- Courtesy of Tim Ferguson-Sauder.
- s-e-3804
- There are 2 images of this object.
- Reproduction, Henry Dreyfuss Drawing Signature Symbol for the Symbol Sourcebook
- photograph.
- Henry Dreyfuss Archive.
- s-e-3806
- Design Drawing, Designs for Push and Pull Symbols
- photomechanical print on paper.
- Gift of Henry Dreyfuss.
- 1972-88-1-6-1/4
- Poster, '68 Mexico Olympics, Final Symbols vs Prelim. Designs
- ink and collage on posterboard, adhesive tape, glue.
- Gift of Henry Dreyfuss.
- 1972-88-1-7-1,2
- Poster, Henry Dreyfuss Symbol Sourcebook 1972
- print on metallic-coated paper.
- Gift of Henry Dreyfuss.
- 1972-88-1-11
- Poster, Triangle Comparisions
- collage, marker, and ink on illustration board.
- Gift of Henry Dreyfuss.
- 1972-88-1-12
- Pamphlet, The Symbol of Access
- lithograph on folded paper.
- Gift of Henry Dreyfuss.
- 1972-88-1-18
- There are 3 images of this object.
- Separator/Ratchet Prototype Vehicle Control Knob
- abs plastic.
- Gift of Henry Dreyfuss.
- 1972-88-131-4
- This object is part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts collection.
