According to the reading, language is bigger than simply naming things; it is linking a concept and a “sound-image” together. Before reading this, I had never heard of a “sound-image,” and frankly, I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around the explanation of it. I’ve been a visual learner for the majority of my life, so trying to decipher what is being said about the difference and combination of concepts and sound-images is very hard. Overall, the readings were difficult to understand, but I think it’s easier to see how language shapes design. Seeing how letters only came after symbols and drawings to communicate words and concepts, it only makes sense we would revert back to this in order to have quick and easy communication skills in design.

Looking at most designs today, be it advertisements or logos, you don’t see a spot full of just letters and words. This would be terribly inefficient due to how we would need a lot of time to process what we are looking at and reading. After reading, we need to comprehend what the words represent and mean; what the concept is behind the letters. However, with images, it is a lot easier to understand what the concept or story is behind it; it’s less to take in but still just as effective at communicating. Symbols and icons were used to communicate before being replaced by alphabets. We survived off hieroglyphics for ages. In general communication, symbols are the “signifiers” because there will always be a connection between it and the signified.