This year, I was fortunate enough to enroll in San Francisco’s recently-implemented Free City program and spend a semester learning a language I’ve always wanted. American Sign Language (ASL) is a complex, naturally-evolving language that uses signs made by moving the hands combined with facial expressions and postures of the body.

As a designer, I was constantly impressed and surprised by the many parallels to visual iconography. ASL is a form of visual communication where variations in hand shape, location, and non-manual markers can change the meaning of a sign. Similarly, visual iconography uses shape, layout, and indicators to define an icon’s meaning.

For this exploration, I wanted to show examples of how American Sign Language is so surprisingly similar to visual iconography.

Iconicity & Resemblance

In linguistics, iconicity represents the conceived similarity between the form of a sign and its meaning. An iconic sign is one whose form resembles its meaning, whereas an arbitrary sign maintains the association between form and meaning solely by convention.

In ASL, not all signs reflect real life. Some are iconic symbols and some are symbols that represent a concept.