Child Psychology

Another book I found very useful, when studying child psychology, was:

"The development of Visual Perception" by Richard Rosinski - His ideas were good as he argues that visual perception is one of the best ways of acquiring and developing knowledge. He also talks about the early life of children and one useful quotation I got from him talking about colours and shapes was:

"... studies clearly show that infants are able to discriminate and recognise."

To finish off the last paragraph or two of the literature review, I discovered some of the works of John Dewey, a philosopher of education who dates from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His works still carry great weight in the educational world of today. He believed that life in school should be related to life outside. One useful quote I have from him is:

"I believe that the school must represent present life".

As well as the books I have mentioned here, I have consulted several others, the titles of which can be seen in the bibliography.



Early childhood books

I then turned my attention to the educational side of the studies which is, of course, as important, if not more important, than the signs and symbols studies I had already done. I found there was a vast array of books going back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries to chose from on all aspects of education.

I was interested in the early primary years and, in part, the years leading up to this from, say, infancy up to around 7 or 8 years old. I started with:

"A Primer of Infant Development" by T.G.R. Bower - I found she was a foremost authority on the early development of children while they were babies and how they responded to pictures, colours, etc.

I got a couple of useful quotations from this book and found it to be a very useful book to begin delving into the subject.

Books about the technical side of signs

I then moved on to a set of more technical books, which I knew would help me decide on what colours and shapes etc, the signs I was planning needed to be.

"Colour" by Gavin Ambrose & Paul Harris - This gave me some very useful information about what colours represented such as red for danger, love etc, green for the environment and much other information, which I found. I also got one useful quotation:

"Colour is perhaps the first element that we register when we view something for the first time."

I followed my reading of the book about "colour" with one about "shapes" with the same authors.

"Image" by Gavin Ambrose & Paul Harris - This gave me a lot of information about the power the shape of a sign can have for example, in traffic signage a prohibition is in the shape of a triangle, while simply giving information takes the form of a circle or rectangle. These were the main books I read about signs and symbols but I also read other books about visual communication:

"See what I mean, an introduction to visual communication" by John Morgan & Peter Wetton.

"The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Signs and Symbols" by Mark O'Connell and Raje Airey to name but two for a full list see the upcoming bibliography in my thesis.

History of pictograms

I finished off my historical studies of visual communication with a look at another important book in the history of graphic design:

"Marks of Excellence" by Per Mullerop - This gave me a very good quote on early graphic design by talking about the development of the rebus:

"Rebuses - Images that can be read as words or letters - embrace the linguistic and pictorial functions of trademarks. The image of the eye is one of the most effective of these puns."

This helps to put the use of pictograms which is basically what my signs for the children will be, into an historical perspective.

What book to read first

I thought it was best if I, first of all, looked into what I knew best i.e. signs and symbols. I had spent the previous year doing a study on these and already had an idea of one or two books I can start with the first of which is:

Megg's History of Graphic Design by Phil B.Meggs & Alston W.Purvis - This is a very important book, giving a comprehensive look at the history of signs and symbols starting with examples like cave paintings in earliest times to how signs developed through the centuries with examples like Heraldry, watermarks etc. I obtained one very good quotation from this which set the tone of the piece:

"This was not the beginning of art as we know it. Rather it was the dawning of visual communication because these early pictures were made for survival and for utilitarian and ritualistic purposes"

How to begin

Once I had agreed a title with my tutor and the concept I wanted to pursue was firmly fixed in my mind, I knew I would then have to prove it would work. This could be done by consulting in books and journals what the experts might think about the idea.

I decided to split my study of the books I would read into two groups:

1.      Those concerned with the use of signs and symbols, their historical reference, use of colour, shapes etc.

2.      Those concerned with education, particularly, those involved with the child's psychology of young children, how they responded to colours, pictures etc.