Pictograms are everywhere. From street signs and text messages to toilet doors and cards, they have changed global trips and removed barriers by creating a universal visual language. This exhibition shows how the beauty and precision of Japanese design shaped the art of visual communication.
Japan played an important role in developing pictograms. The renowned design agency Nippon Design Center set an early standard with the sporting pictograms that they created for the 1964 Olympic Games, while people often unknowingly use a Japanese word – 'emoji' – to talk about digital pictograms.
From ancient Egyptian grave to navigating contemporary Japan, pictograms follow the design, evolution, power and future potential of these universal signs.
Visitors can create their own symbol from a selection of component pieces and move between huge pictograms-under a 2.5-meter-torii shrine gate that accumulate up to a sumo wrestler or even the controls of a Japanese move.
The exhibition also offers the first opportunity to see selected pictograms designed by young people from Great Britain and who were invited to represent “their London” in graphic form.