Icons, Pictures and Symbols, Oh My!!

I found "From the Vocabulary of Comics" to be a refreshing read.  Scott McCloud did a great job incorporating relevant information in an even more relevant format.  I like the quote he says at the end: "But if who I am matters less, maybe what I say will matter more."  It seems like a fun theory that could drive tons of debate.  I'm not sure it is relevant, but at the same time I could see it being relevant.  I also enjoyed the comparison of ourselves and cartoons.  It is definitely an essay that creates a lot of thought.

The other essay, "Pictures, Symbols and Signs," was a slow read initially but had relevant information in it.  I enjoyed the part where he begins to discuss the relevance of symbols.  Some company symbols, when isolated by themselves, are easily recognized while others might not be as easily recognized.  I currently work at JC Penney and we have a new CEO.  Ron Johnson has created a huge change in the company and incorporated a new JC Penney logo.  Some company logos are easily recognized, such as the following:

What Ron Johnson wanted to do was create a JC Penney logo that would be internationally recognized as these two are.  This led to the creation of the following as JC Penney's new logo:

Without these symbols being prevalent in the lives of those that recognize these symbols, they mean nothing.  The Apple sign is an apple that is missing a bite, Target's symbol is an O around a circle and the JC Penney logo is a small square in the corner of a box.  All symbols and pictures are only relevant in their given environments.  Anything else is a learned association.  I enjoyed reading this portion of the essay as it was highly relevant to the changes JC Penney has had in the last few months.