Susan Kare: Interview With an Iconic Designer [GALLERY].

Susan Kare is Iconic in the field of computer and web icons. She did most of the work of Apple’s original Mac Computers. Click the link above for a great Mashable article.

You can create your own vector graphics icons at www.mikons.com. Or use icons at parties and conferences as ice breakers at www.mikonmixers.com . If you want to use an iconic symbol to express your gratitude for a teacher or a mentor the www.IconOfHope.com  is the perfect gift.

I have been noticing college football teams using sets of large symbols to call plays from the sidelines.  This is an example used by the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the overtime victory or the Iowa State Cyclones this last Saturday.

Several weeks ago I watched the Oregon Ducks use similar symbols. Below is a great article by Anne M. Peterson of the AP. Here is my favorite line; “We tried to have one word to communicate 10 words, or one picture communicate 10 words, something that would give our guys an immediate association so they could get out there and play fast,” Helfrich said.

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — That poster on Oregon’s sideline emblazoned with the face of the Burger King is not some sort of advertising ploy. It’s a play.

Top-ranked Oregon, in an effort to speed up its lightning-fast offense, uses seemingly nonsensical placards hoisted on the sideline to convey plays to the Ducks on the field.

The signs are split into quadrants of pictures, and can include photos of sportscasters, graphic images and even words. One recently included ESPN’s Rece Davis, a map of New Hampshire, a battleship and the word “glycerine.”
There is nothing really new in flashing numbers or colors from the sideline, usually used alongside traditional hand signals and on-field audibles, to identify plays — especially for no-huddle teams such as Oregon.

But the Ducks are different because their signs are so amusing. And, as the No. 1 team in the country, undefeated Oregon is getting a lot of TV time, so more people are taking notice.

Oklahoma State used similar signs against Oregon in the 2008 Holiday Bowl, but the Ducks borrowed ideas from several teams and devised their own system. Much like the team took the spread-option offense and made it their own.

“There’s a lot of different systems out there, and a lot of good ones,” Oregon offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich said. “This one we just tried to meld with our guys.”

Oklahoma State’s signs in 2008 were divided into six sections with various letters, numbers, symbols and words. The reasoning, just like at Oregon, was to speed up play calling, said Gunter Brewer, the Cowboys co-offensive coordinator that season.

He believes Oklahoma State was the first to use poster-sized cards flashed from the sideline.

“We didn’t make the wheel. We just made it rounder,” Brewer said.

The Cowboys would create new signs for each game, keeping a step ahead of any opponents who wanted to try to decipher the codes. Brewer, now a receivers coach at Oklahoma State, says that to his knowledge nobody ever figured them out.

The Cowboys have since moved away from the system, but Brewer said he remembers that Oregon coach Chip Kelly visited the Cowboys one spring and asked about the signs. He’s glad to see the Ducks having success using them.

“They are the fastest team in football right now, there’s no doubt about it,” Brewer said. “Everybody wants to emulate them.”

The signs are certainly all about speed.

“We tried to have one word to communicate 10 words, or one picture communicate 10 words, something that would give our guys an immediate association so they could get out there and play fast,” Helfrich said.

Oregon has the top-ranked offense in the nation, averaging 572.88 yards a game. The Ducks also are leading the country with an average of 55.88 points. There’s no doubt that they’re quick.

Some have said the Ducks moved to the system because there were concerns that Ohio State may have caught on to Oregon’s play-calling in last season’s Rose Bowl. The Buckeyes won the game 26-17.

Helfrich said that was not true.

“We had some suspicions of that earlier on (in the season), so we started using multiple signalers. That was probably more our paranoia that anything. But that was not the thing that started it. It was being fast.”

Duck fans have even made a game out of creating sideline signs. One that has made the rounds on the internet before this Saturday’s game against northwest rival Washington features a Husky puppy and a photo of a dumpster on fire.

Last week I ran the Rock n Roll Half-Marathon in Seattle. The finish line was at Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks. These symbols are at the North end of the Staduim. 

I looked them up and found this at the Qwest Field website:

Bob Haozous’ installation on the stadium’s North Tower is assembled from four 24-foot-diameter painted steel discs. Although inspired by symbols that are part of his Warm Springs/Chiricahua Apache heritage, Haozous believes that the forms and colors of the artwork have universal meanings.

Specifically, the artwork is intended as a constant reminder of our deep connection to the earth. According to Haozous, the lowest disc, depicting a stylized cityscape, represents our contemporary, man-made world. The green disc above it symbolizes life and growth, but its human figures are flying away, suggesting the loss of man’s direct tie to nature, or in a more hopeful reading, a return to those ties. The third disc honors the sun, highlighting our dependence on the natural world and the redemptive powers of nature. The top disc is a collection of man-made clouds, meant to suggest the immensity of the natural environment.

Bob Haozous is attempting to connect us with our environment and one another. What I love of about Icons and Symbols and the people who create them is that the creators are putting themselves out there. Creators of these symbols are courageous people.

Make your own icons and symbols at www.mikons.com.

Who is your Inunnguaq? The Icon of Hope is a Gift of Gratitude for someone who has helped you on our journey.

The Inuit people of Northern Canada build stone structures to point the way across desolate tundra and ice. Sometimes built in the shape of a man, they are called Inunnguaq. These stone sentinels can save a life on the harsh, frozen landscape where few survive alone.

These stones are called INUNNGUAQ (pronounced EEN-NON-WOK). They are  used by the Inuit people of the icy tundra of  Northern Canada. Stacked stones “in the shape  of a man” – the meaning of Inunnguaq – are a landmark and survival guide for travelers on a journey.

They are placed from one horizon to the next.  The Inuit erect these stones out of love for fellow travelers – people they may never know.  They say, “You are on the right path…you arenot alone.

Express your appreciation to that person who has shown you the way.

Join the movement. Share the Icon of Hope. Let there be 1,000,000 Icons of Hope in the World.

The Easter Egg represents rebirth for a new life as represented by the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Early Christians painted the eggs red.  It was to symbolize the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, the egg shell symbolized the tomb in which he was buried, and cracking the egg on Easter morning represented the resurrection.

The teachings and spirit of Jesus has been a guide millions over the centuries. Share a gift to someone who has guided you in your life. Give a gift of gratitude, give an Inunnguaq to your Icon of Hope at www.IconOfHope.com.

The Christian Cross is bleeds with symbolism.  Today, this Friday, is called Good Friday.  It is the day that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified.  The cross now symbolizes the atonement of man to God. 

However, it’ adoption has a rich history of politics, lust, goodness, and holiness. Below is an excerpt of an interpretation called the “Cross of Christ”.  Click on that title to read the full article.  It is well written and even provocative.  Consider this: Jesus lived the crucifiction leaving us the symbol to metaphorically die to our selfish selves to be at one with God – atonement (at one ment). 

 There is a long history of Christians using the symbol of the cross in superstitious and mystical ways.   The earliest Christians seem to have repudiated the use of the cross as a symbol. This because the cross was a despised execution instrument. Would we want to wear a gold-plated noose or gallows had Jesus been hanged, or a gold-plated guillotine had Jesus been beheaded, or a gold-plated electric-chair had Jesus been electrocuted, or a gold-plated syringe had Jesus been lethally injected? It is not difficult to understand their aversion to using the cross as a symbol.
Mankind has always utilized symbols to give expression to their abstract ideas. Early Christians developed a symbol of the fish because the Greek word for fish, ichthus, was used as an acrostic for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.” The dove was used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. The first two letters of the Greek word for Christ, Christos, were formed together as a chi-rho symbol for Christ. The primary emphasis of early Christian preaching was the resurrection-life of Jesus Christ, for which a symbol was difficult to find. The empty cross became a symbol to show that Jesus had been raised from the dead, and it eventually became the predominant Christian symbol. The first record of its use is found during the second century. Clement of Alexandria wrote, “we mark the brow with the sign of the cross.14 There is also evidence that the gesture of the cross and material objects in the form of a cross were used as early as the second century as ritual fetishes to ward off evil, a practice which was condemned.

   The cross as a symbol was further entrenched as the primary symbol of Christian religion after the Roman emperor, Constantine, claimed to have seen a flaming cross of light in the sky with the words, “By this sign conquer.” He henceforth merged Christian religion with his political aspirations using the symbol of the cross. Constantine’s mother, Helena, is alleged to have travelled to Palestine in 325 A.D. and she claimed to have discovered the original wooden cross on which Jesus was crucified. The criteria for the claim was that a sick person had grasped the wood and was allegedly healed. Small fragments were transported back to Rome and sold to wealthy believers as priceless relics. There were not enough to supply the demand so they claimed “the miracle of the multiplication of the cross” whereby many more splinters from the cross were allegedly formed. It is reported that wood fragments existed in Roman Catholic churches around the world sufficient to construct many crosses.

   The problem with symbols is that since they are more tangible than the abstract reality, religious people tend gradually to superstitiously worship the symbol and lose sight of the reality on which it is based. This, of course, is the essence of idolatry. Symbols become amulets, magical charms, holy hardware. They are used as fetishes, believed to have magical power to aid or protect when rubbed, worn, or otherwise utilized. Symbols can also become conceptual fetishes, mental objects of irrational reverence and obsessive devotion. A.W. Tozer remarked that idolatry “begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place.” It is this latter practice of using the cross as an ideological idol that we shall continue to explore.

   For many centuries the idea of the cross and the action of Christ’s crucifixion have been considered as if they were an on-going living reality. The concept of the cross has been enlivened, empowered, personified and deified…. click here to read more of this article.

The Cross has had many treatments over the centuries of fissures and factions.  Look here at many styles of crosses explained in Wikipedia.

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the Christian followers’ foreheads as a sign of repentance. The ashes used are typically gathered after the Palm Crosses from the previous year’s Palm Sunday are burned. In the liturgical practice of some churches, the ashes are mixed with the Oil of the Catechumens (one of the sacred oils used to anoint those about to be baptized), though some churches use ordinary oil. This paste is used by the minister who presides at the service to make the sign of the cross, first upon his own forehead and then on those of congregants.

Ash Wednesday is a day of repentance and it marks the beginning of Lent. Ashes were used in ancient times, according to the Bible, to express mourning. Dusting oneself with ashes was the penitent’s way of expressing sorrow for sins and faults.

This post consists of exerpts from Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday

Visit Mikons.com and express symbolic meaning in your life,

This symbol is of the Claddagh Ring is traditionally romantically given by the Irish. The symbolism of the Claddagh Ring corresponds to the qualities of love (the heart), friendship (the hands), and loyalty (the crown). The expression which was associated with these symbols in the giving of the ring was: “With my two hands I give you my heart, and crown it with my loyalty.”  This ring was first produced for Queen Mary II in the 17th Century.

Wikipedia has more on the history and celebrities who have shared the Claddagh.

Create and express your own symbol of love at www.Mikons.com.