Can stylized pale-toned public health and safety graphic signs become the mainstream of design?

Abstract

As visual identification symbols, graphic signs can help viewers quickly identify and perform relevant emergency actions. This study aimed to content analyze the style and color characteristics of appropriate public health and safety graphic signs, and summarize the current design mainstream. A total of 245 samples were collected from the Getty Images’ collections covering diverse materials and graphic signs released from 1995 to 2023. The results indicate that the most common style in the public health safety graphic signs was "abstract symbology", characterized by geometric lines and the absence of textures and shadows. Additionally, the color tone with the highest proportion was "pale", a more white shade of pure color.

Keywords: Abstract Symbology, Practical Color Co-ordinate System, Brightness, Saturation

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006328