pictographs.

Pic·to·graph
noun
A pictorial symbol for a word or phrase.

Pictographs are the earliest form of writing and date back to the caveman days. Although I have always been very interested in pictographs, or pictograms, my love for the symbolized form of writing was reawakened upon taking the class Books & Print. Not only have I been able to draw and decipher different pictographs in this course, I even tried my hand at creating pictographs of my own. I have to say that anyone who thinks this form of writing is dead, it very much is not. 

Much like the ideogram, which represents concepts and ideas, we can still find these ancient writing techniques around us today. Some examples include the little people on the signs of the bathroom, one is clearly wearing a skirt meaning "girl" and the other does not, meaning (naked) "boy." 

My favorite of all pictograph styles are those done by the Native Americans, although I am partial because they are my ancestors. One thing that I really love about the Native american symbolism is that it is mostly universal across all Native American tribes, with few variations. This portrays a sense of unity, even between those tribes in constant conflict, because they were willing to try to communicate with those outside of their tribe. Even though some were used as warnings, others were used to symbolize their desire to maintain peace and civility, as well as direct others towards resources, or lay paths to those who were separated. My favorite symbol is the broken arrow, which means "peace." This broken arrow was often used at entrances to show on-comers that they are not in danger in that particular area, or to show a resolved conflict between two tribes. I thought this symbol was so powerful because of its simplicity. The symbol for war is the upturned arrow, and to those who knew the symbol for war, would inevitably be able to know this peace symbol. It had so much meaning to me that I decided to use this symbol as what I wanted the world to see from me, so I went and got the broken arrow as a tattoo. For the same reasons as the ancient Native Americans intended, I would like other to know that I am coming from a place of piece, while also symbolizing an end of "war" I had with myself when I was younger (teenage angst, am i right?). That leads me to make the connection between ancient times and today, where one can get a tattoo in order to portray meaning for something else: an emotion, a religion, a loss. which ever it may be pictographs/grams and ideograms are still very much present and useful in modern day. 

Here are a few for your scribbling pleasure :)