Learning from pictograms.An educational experience in basic design

Despite its apparent simplicity the design of pictograms, or rather of systems of pictograms, is a recurrent theme in many visual designers' work, spanning the history of graphic design, art and culture. From primitive prehistoric cave depictions to the introduction of ideograms; from the development of airports signage systems and libraries of symbols for tourist guides to the introduction of icons in software interfaces and apps., going through ISOTYPE and the Gestalt theory: the study of graphic symbols of universal value and complexity takes up a special space in visual design. A space of the simplest sophistication. This paper presents an on-going educational experiment at the first year of study in Architecture and Design in Alghero, where the development and design of a system of pictograms, becomes an education device for training our students in visual design, enhancing their design thinking skills. Engaging our students on a two level scheme, inspired by basic-design strategies, we aim at stimulating their ability to communicate visually, by developing a systemic approach, in which the two complementary approaches of drawing with digital tools and of coding work in parallel, This two ways to look at a same task, we hope, will encourage our students to understand design as a problemsolving activity as well as an intellectual practice.