I saw this logo on a truck of an Austin party rental company. Immediately I thought, what a weird logo for this kind of business. The dude's beard and the turban would not indicate an ethnic or religious group that's known for partying. :-) And the spike growing out of his eye... just surreal. Has he smoked too many substances? Is that what the company means by "Keep Austin Partying?"
Then I realized, it's a bird. That's not a beard, it's a wing. And the "spike" is the bird's beak.
It's no wonder I prefer text-based user interfaces to graphic. I never understood why the icons in a graphical UI are so obscure and hard to recognize. At least to me, perhaps less so to other people. When I was learning image-editing programs, people would sometimes tell me to use the "bucket" (a Fill icon), but instead of a tilted bucket, I would see a hand with a mitten. I also couldn't understand why the old-time Windows Control Panel icon was a cat. Yes, a cat. I realize it's supposed to be a bunch of tools, but all those tools look like long, skinny cat's legs.
With faces, it's even worse. We humans are wired to see faces everywhere. So I won't be laughing at the next person who sees Virgin Mary in a toast.
Which is worse though?
ReplyDeleteSee faces where there are none or seeing something as a face that is in fact, something else?
How else, rather, do you explain the fact that not everyone would look at that image and see a face. At first look, I thought it was a stylistic fluer de lis. Only upon second look, before reading your description, did it look like a bird to me.
When was the Windows Control Panel icon a cat? I've been involved with Windows since the beginning and I don't remember a cat.