Daigle Circle Pamphlet

presented by the Gallery of Art and Design

you are here . enter/exit

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The symbolism of the circle goes

harmony and unity” (Howard 1). There

period but first recognized by the

comes to these themes of birth, life,

as far back as the Mesopotamia

Egyptians. Specifically, a fifteenth-

century mathematician scribe, Ahem, the earliest contributor to math

is a certain harmony in place when it love, and death within a circular motif.

whose name is known. The Greeks

The circle is a grandfather to design,

of geometry. Geometry is a base of

has been prevalent through numerous

considered Egyptians the inventors design because that is how grids

formed like the golden mean. Along

with squares and triangles, circles are the basis of polygons meaning they form more creative and attractive

results. Shapes are a big component

in graphic design. Humans see shapes before details. Shapes can either hurt or please the eye.

In design, there is psychology and the reason behind every choice. So due to the geometric and psychological

definitions of a circle were meanings

for birth, life, love, and death formed culturally. Circles are a universal

symbol with extensive meaning. A

circle represents things that create a sense of completeness. “Circles are still symbolically important today.

They are often used to symbolize

as old as time itself in other words. It designers work but specifically

more so in Josef Müller-Brockmann’s

work. He moulds circles within a grid

allowing depth and negative space to shine through a 2D shape. He is the

inspiration of this Swiss, minimalistic design showing circular motifs are

successful in real-world applications.

Brockmann mainly works with circles

in poster formats through illustration mediums but the circle applies

beyond that. Not only is it applied in illustrations but also logos, patterns, typefaces, and shapes. Circles

figuratively and literally connect the old and the new, how styles have changed but the elements have

remained true. Rather than focusing on circles in their entirety, there is

a lens placed over the elements of

design instead. Elements like color,

type, and picture treatment have

relaying the content to the customer

always a constant with ever-

never just shapes. A shape is a

gone round and round for decades changing styles.

The history of the circle is prevalent in today’s world of design. The history, psychology, and math

behind this shape enable infinite

in the proper context. Shapes are symbol and that is the difference

between a pretty aesthetic and visual communication. Just like a museum, design’s purpose is education and communication.

possibilities. While the aesthetics of a circular symbol certainly change

with time and outer world influences, the universal meaning has not.

This is the reason how people can communicate from past decades

to today. Not only can knowledge

transcend through times, but symbols are also how people can interact

without words. To interact without

words is a big point of graphic design which is why logos are as essential as the brand identities and information themselves.

The blending of history, math, and

psychology that have bettered design into the prestigious field it is today.

It is the common themes of birth, life, love, and death that aid the meanings within the design into successfully

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...an end is just another beginning.

Blue was the color of the heavens and water. More importantly,

blue represented rebirth. The

Egyptian symbol for rebirth was

the Ouroboros. The Ouroboros is

a snake in the shape of the circle.

One half of the meaning is the snake is coming out of its mouth which

represents new life. The other is the

snake eating its own tail representing death. In pop culture today, thanks to Harry Potter, people associate

a symbol of rebirth with a Phoenix.

A phoenix is born again out of the

own ashes from which it died. From

Ouroboros to the phoenix, the symbol may have changed but the meaning of rebirth is still the same. Both of

these symbols are created in circular natures because of their definitions, an end is just another beginning.

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...built from the same blueprint.

Green represents new life, growth, vegetation, and fertility. A person

doing “green things� was beneficial.

The Flower of Life symbol represents

the same things the color green does.

The Flower of Life is a circular pattern created from a grid that historically

represents a visual expression of the connections of life that run through all sentient beings. In symbolizing creation, it reminds humanity of

the unity underneath everything.

Everything is built from the same blueprint.

The oldest known depictions of

the Flower of Life were found in

the Temple of Osiris in Egypt that

dates back more than six thousand years ago. Recent research shows

it could not have been made earlier than 535 BC. This is a grid artists

have designed from centuries. For

instance, Leonardo da Vinci further studied the Flower of Life and

its mathematical properties. He

drew inspirations from the symbol

when creating his Vitruvian Man as well as deriving the five platonic

solids (tetrahedron, the cube, the

octahedron, the icosahedron, and the dodecahedron), and Golden Ratio.

All are elements designers use in

present time. Today you can find the Flower of Life in use on a sphere

under the paw of a guardian lion in

the Forbidden City in Peking, China.

It is because of the Flower of Life we are able to create elements that are

foundational to a designer’s tool kit.

Elements like compositions, negative space and layouts which are relevant to this capstone project as well.

Another Egyptian symbol

representing life is the Circle and Dot. This symbol is in relation to

the Eye of Ra, a sun god. The sun

has been of circular nature since the big bang while also in use for cross-

referencing time. The sun is a living

This is how designers are able to

the Sun round? Large space objects

ones chosen for this exhibit, that all

thing with its own life span. Why is

are round because they formed and collapsed under the force of their

create iconography, much like the can identify.

own gravity. As material collapses

on itself, the most natural, efficient shape to form is a sphere.

The Circle and Dot is a quite literal representation of time, from day and night and season to season,

time cycles with the sun. Functions

that are stuck in bringing humans a new year to a year’s end, over and

over until the sun collapses on itself completely. A concept humans have been able to organize due to the

Mayans into what is now known as a calendar, or a wristwatch or a clock.

This Egyptian symbol has influenced the design of everyday objects

people use which in turn influences

design. The graphic design industry pulls from its social surroundings.

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...symbolizes the eternal.

Yellow symbolizes the eternal and

become one. The claim is that

of love which has been and is

toward establishing and sustaining

Following suit, the wedding ring

Leary 1). So psychologically, a

rings were gold, they were braided

to humanity’s well-being which was

was placed on the fourth finger of

band. In other words, a circle can

a vein connects from that finger to

hemisphere. The circle is much like a

indestructible much like the theme

human beings are “naturally driven

represented by the wedding ring.

belongingness� (Baumeister and

also originated in Egypt. Before

sense of belongingness is crucial

rings of hemp or reeds. The ring

all compressed down into a gold

the left hand because it is believed

hold a heart and mind in the same

the heart. Today, wedding rings are

wedding vow, infinite.

the diamond-encrusted investments one thinks of. As the economy and

resources have modernized through

time, allowing the uses of metal, the

meaning as remained the same. Since the first band was braided, the ring symbolizes love. It is also a public

symbol of an agreement to devote and, respect. So even though the

rings started out as green, they are

more so associated with yellow color gold today.

Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary

argue that the need to belong is a

fundamental human need. Much like interlocking circles that represent strength and solidarity, when two

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...that is the circle of life.

In its negative context of anger and

were suffering from the after-effects

with the Egyptian god Set, who

American colonies where a smallpox

fire, the color red became associated was the personification of evil and

darkness. A person filled with rage

was said to have a red heart, a heart that can kill. The noose has been

a form of capital punishment since

the fifth century when hanging was

introduced to Britain by the Germanic Anglo-Saxon tribes. The gallows were an important element in a Germanic culture which is how it then trickled down into seventeenth-century America and England.

In America, the noose was infamous

of a British war with France in the

epidemic broke out. Those that were “bewitched� were suffering from

fungus ergot, fungi that grew on rye, and wheat. Symptoms from ingestion included delusions, vomiting and muscle spasms. On top of which there was a fear of attacks from

neighboring Native American tribes.

The combination of these hardships fueled the tensions that prompted the Salem witch trials that caused

suspicions and resentments between the neighbors and outsiders.

during the Salem witch hangings.

In England, there was the Golden Age

the belief that devil worshipping

maritime piracy which significantly

The witch trials came to light when practices gave certain humans the

power to harm others in return for their loyalty. Witch hangings had emerged as early as fourteenth-

century Europe then widespread into colonial New England. What people took as magic was natural selection and adaptation. The truth was the

harsh realities of life in rural Puritan communities like Salem. People

of Piracy. It was a common period of factored in the histories of the

Caribbean, the United Kingdom,

Indian Ocean states, North America, and West Africa. This and the

successful Pirates of the Caribbean

franchise is how pop culture has come to associate hangings with pirates

as well as witches. The two events

in history were also simultaneously

happening across the Atlantic Ocean.

The noose had remained the primary form of killing until about 1890 but it was not until January 25 1996, it

becomes illegal. Today, “hanging� is now injected into the veins in liquid form creating the same suffocating effect not lasting nearly as long or

painful. It is because of this history,

a color as simple as red has become filled with passions. Red can be

interpreted in numerous ways in

design which is why the psychology and reasoning must be behind the

visuals created. So red paired with

a symbol of death signifies the end,

where a new circle will begin. That is the circle of life.

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