People have been using images to communicate since they first felt the need to communicate nonverbally. In fact, images often have the power to facilitate quicker and more effective communication.
At this point, we’re well aware of the symbols for poison and high voltage, and in the digital realm, those for email attachments and voice and video capabilities, but can you recall the last time a new symbol worked its way into your lexicon?
Hypermorgen, a Berlin-based “interdisciplinary lab for futures research” has come up with a number of new visual icons for the digital age. They were inspired to create these images when looking for an icon to signify that their email was encrypted, but nothing they saw conveyed what they wanted it to. Instead, they designed their own symbol along with a bevy of others that we could easily see working their way into both the digital and physical worlds.
Hypermorgen’s icon designs. From Fast Co.Exist.
“We realized that icons are a nice way of condensing a lot of information in a very tiny space and therefore could be quite thought proving without lots of text or talk,” says Hypermorgen co-founder René Schäfer.
The icons represent emerging technologies, including concepts you’ve probably heard of, like 3D replication and self-driving cars, and those that are more obscure, such as graphene and slime mold computing.
“Slime mold computing is my favorite,” Jörg Schatzmann, another Hypermorgen co-founder, told Co.Exist. “It turns out that slime mold is better in computing some non-linear tasks, like the optimized routing for our roads, than most of our computers.”
Who knew? Hypermorgen hopes that creating these icons will foster discussion about the future. As the best icons have done in the past, these simplified images will help people understand the complex technologies behind them.
The icons are available for free download on the Noun Project, a continually-expanding library of symbols.
We can see them now: “Meat Printing” labels will mark packages at the grocery store, Hypermorgen’s black envelope will alert recipients to encrypted messages, and “Autonomous Car” signs will line small-town roadways.
Which icons do you see working in the not-too-distant future? Let is know in the comments below.