The readings “Course in General Linguistics” by Ferdinand de Saussure and “Counting Sheep, A Brief History of Written Numbers” by Lupton Miller talk about the form of communication through written language, sound, meaning, and the difference between countries. It is interesting how humans associate sounds and symbols to communicate something. We connect symbols, sounds, images (sign, meaning, and signifier) with the concept in a very natural, frequent, and fast way without realizing how complex the process is. In addition, it is interesting how language evolves over time and subjectivity between years and countries. For example, Chinese and Japanese characters that initially both civilizations share the same characters to read and write but now both countries have their own language to communicate.
Also, it is interesting how we associate things to tell or represent something. Initially, humans used sticks, fingers, body parts, cows, clay, etc. as a way of counting and evolved certain symbols to represent a quantity. For example, the number five was counted with tangible elements (cows, sticks, stones, etc.), and over time it loses its complexity, becoming a more abstract sign like the V in Roman numerals to the point that this symbol 5, represents the number five in our current number system. We associate a sign with a concept as a visual form of communication. And this happens with all the signs that we can find on a street, airport, restaurant, and even on our smartphones. Emojis, icons on smartphones, visual interfaces, filters, sounds, etc. are new elements of communication that help us to understand and express our ideas, things, or concepts. So, design and designers have an important role in communication and its evolution. We are responsible for creating new forms and changes of visual communication to make it simple, legible, and easy to understand for everyone. Visual communication is like a universal of communication, no matter where you are from, what language you speak or read, visual communication breaks down this barrier and makes people understand what this symbol means. I remember when I travel to Hong Kong, I have a Chinese heritage, but I don’t know how to read and write any Chinese characters, and thanks to the symbols and signs the subway can easily travel around the city.