Icons: A History

Icons are a ubiquitous part of our lives now, they’re on pretty much everything we interact with on a daily basis. And there’s a reason for that! Images can convey concepts in a much more concise way than the supporting text to spell it out would. They’re convenient to save time and space, and improve interactions, whether you’re an illiterate medieval peasant or a cutting edge digital user. In this article, Kyle Blacklock takes a deep dive into the history of our pictorial design helpers, from hieroglyphs to IKEA instructions and beyond.