Multimedia Help on Road Signs

The theme of the research is art in road signs, in objects without which it is impossible to imagine a modern city. Their pedigree originates from ISOTYPE, a visual language coined by Otto Neurath, an Austrian philosopher and sociologist. His goal was to create a convenient system of self-evident signs which can without words briefly convey the necessary information. It is an international language devoid of cultural identity. (1 – International picture language, Otto Neurath, 1936) A road sign is an object whose meaning will be understood regardless of the country where you meet it. Many figures in field of art who study the theme of everyday life often turn to standardized graphic designs in their projects. The artist, transforming one of the millions of identical signs, personalizes this object and creates a new macro world in the globalization environment. During the research, the transformed signs were divided into subgroups according to the forms: round, triangular and square. Turned out that round ones are more often used than ones of other forms, for example: STOP, arrows and etc. As a rule, the authors do not destroy the existing picture, but apply a new layer of information to it. Such aesthetics has reflected not only in the street art works, but also in furniture designers, as well as couturiers.
Around the world there are more than 1000 examples in which designers and artists exploring and transforming the already existing objects. Works in which is used real road signs are rarely encouraged by the city administration, because there are certain state standard specifications (ГОСТы) for them; they should be clearly visible, understandable and not closed. (2 – URL: http://docs.cntd.ru/document/gost-r-52290-2004). Many tourists, arriving from vacation, talk about unusual art objects that have been seen in Florence, London, Kyoto and other places. To sum up, we can say that such signs in their way to become a real attraction of the whole city.