give me a sign:
The Language of Symbols
About exhibit the
Symbols are important communication tools in our daily lives, constantly evolving based on new needs and users. Symbols have the power to instruct, protect, entertain, connect, and even divide us. They formed some of the first written human expressions and today animate our digital chats.
From 1969 to 1972, the visionary designer Henry Dreyfuss (American, 1904–1972) oversaw the making of the Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols, a manual that compiled and categorized thousands of symbols in use internationally. The publication was celebrated as an “event with worldwide ramifications, very much in keeping with the man who created it — a man who not only sees change coming, but helps to usher it in.”
This exhibition was on display from
May 13, 2023 to August 11, 2024.
Dreyfuss understood how symbols functioned for people. He and his industrial design team placed symbols on products and services where we now take them for granted—on airplanes, cameras, telephones, tractors, and more.
Anticipating the everyday use of symbols in our current digital era, the Symbol Sourcebook helped to elevate the importance of symbols and increase their number in our world. Though it was published over 50 years ago, the Symbol Sourcebook is still used by designers today. The origin story of the Symbol Sourcebook — told for the first time here through primary materials from Cooper Hewitt’s Henry Dreyfuss Archive — has inspired us to look at symbols now and explore their evolution and future.
Reproduction, Henry Dreyfuss Drawing
Signature Symbol for the Symbol Sourcebook 1971
Photograph Henry Dreyfuss Archive
Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols 1972
Bound volume with color
illustrations Gift of Henry Dreyfuss
Reproduction, Laying Out
Reproduction, Pamela Holaday Redrawing Symbols for the Symbol Sourcebook
1971
Photograph
Reproduction, Redrawing Symbols and Creating Symbol Sourcebook Mockups
1971
Photograph
Reproduction, George Ball with Push and Pull Symbols
1971
Photograph
Reproduction, Smokey the Bear, Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols
1972
Print on paper
Henry Dreyfuss Archive
Reproduction, Deer Area Symbol, Symbol
Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Symbols
1972
Print on paper
Henry Dreyfuss Archive
Reproduction, Thin Ice Symbol, Symbol
Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols
1972
Print on paper
Henry Dreyfuss Archive
Reproduction, Fictitious Road Sign
Industrial Design June 1969
Print on paper
Henry Dreyfuss Archive
Poster, Traffic Symbols
1969
Collage on grey wove paper
Gift of Henry Dreyfuss
Reproduction, User Testing Operator Controls in Prototype John Deere Agricultural Vehicle
1969
35 mm Slide
Henry Dreyfuss Archive
Reproduction, Dashboard with Operator Controls in John Deere Agricultural Vehicle
1969
35 mm Slide
Henry Dreyfuss Archive
Poster, John Deere
Symbols
1969
Diazoprint with printed card
Gift of Henry Dreyfuss
Power of Symbol
Reproduction, Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes
Photograph
Dan Wynn Archive and Farmani Group, Co LTD
Symbol of Power
Pinback Button, War Against Repression, Guerra Contra Repression, April 5, Wall Street
1971
Ink on paper, metal, plastic Exhibition purchase
Pinback Button, Unite Aainst War, Racism & Repression, YWLL
1970
Ink on paper, metal, plastic Exhibition purchase
Pinback Button, Women Against Nukes
1978
Ink on paper, metal, plastic Exhibition purchase
Reproduction, Black Lives Matter Protest, Minneapolis June 4, 2020
Photograph Courtesy of Lorie Shaull, licensed under CC by 2.0
Poster, Capital
1968
Screenprint on paper
Life Magazine, Confrontation in Harvard
Yard
April 25, 1969
Offset lithograph Exhibition purchase
Cooper Hewitt is the only museum in the U.S. devoted exclusively to historical and contemporary design, and is the steward of one of the most diverse and comprehensive design collections in existence — more than 215,000 design objects spanning 30 centuries.
From ancient textiles and works on paper to icons of modern design and cutting-edge technologies, Cooper Hewitt’s collection serves as inspiration for creative work of all kinds and tells the story of design’s paramount importance in improving our world.
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. dailly Closed Thanksgiving and December 25 TICKETS
Adults $22 | Seniors $16 | Visitors with disabilities $10 | Members and 18 & under Free Pay what you wish 5 - 6 p.m. daily.
