Modern icons convey meanings through the pictorial resemblance of the physical objects, the same method practiced back to 3200 B.C. by Egyptians. Although the subject of matter may be different due to the advance of technology, the idea behind the approach remains the same throughout thousands of years in the history of writing.
It wasn’t until I was researching on icons in mobile applications that I realized, most icons that comprise our modern icon language are originated after electricity has been invented, correlated with the boom of the Internet in the 20th century. People’s daily lives in ancient Egypt are significantly different from those of modern society, so their needs to convey ideas through graphic symbols are different, too. For example, the idea of “working” may means commuting in modern society, and being represented as a briefcase in Google Maps.
However, ancient Egyptians definitely do not walk to their company and get paid in that way. So what do they do as a job? According to Ancient Egypt Online, farming was the backbone of ancient Egyptian society, and it was one of the most common jobs. The strong influence of Ancient Egypt as an agrarian society can also be discovered in Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The character of reed later becomes the E in the alphabet. They even take the concept of two reeds to generate a new character! Other concepts such as quail and loaf appearing in the Egyptian hieroglyphs together portray a complete image of the life of ancient Egyptians: They work in the field during the daytime, eat quail and loaf as the main food.
Although life is so different between now and then, the representation of certain natural elements remains its form. Take the example of this graphic that I found appearing in both Google Maps and the Egyptian hieroglyphs. This can be explained as water is one of the human’s living essentials. And they both take representations of the wave pattern to convey the concept of water. This reveals the core value behind this approach in the history of writing: by creating symbols, people are able to convey common sense through simple shapes, which then make communication more efficient.
I agree that our use of icons evolves together by the times, which is fast. We might use a teapot icon to represent “a nice day” who knows^^
Nicely said.
I agree with you. The icon is a function that allows people to quickly reach a consensus, resonates, is visual, and helps people communicate.
The pictures from Egyptian hieroglyphics helped provide more context.