What is a pictogram? Well, I had no idea what it was before today. Pictograms are pictures that tell a story without a single words. In everyday use, pictograms are used on many sreet signs where language is irrelevant. They seem to borrow alot from hieroglyphics. Here is an example of a couple of really striking ones. I am guessing they are by a designer of a Spanish speaking country because the site I found them on is entirely in Spanish Portugese. According to the blog, the Pictograms are by an Israeli artist, Noma Bar.
These images really impressed me not only from a design point of view but from a stoytelling point of view too. Aside from their Saul Bass-esque sleak design they are really fascinating for a person involved in visual storytelling. When stoyboarding animation you are always trying to convey the most powerful thing you can in any given frame. I think there is alot animators can learn from pictograms such as these. OK, so not all parts of a film need such simple and efficient graphics but there are points in many animated film, in particular stylised films such as The Cat Piano where doing exercises like this could be thoroughly helpful. What if you can convey what would normally take you 3 minutes in 20 seconds? This kind of efficiency could be a really useful tool for many people making an animated film, specifically one with a small budget.
Maybe pick a classic fairy tale (Like Little Red Riding Hood) featured above and see if you can communicate it to the viewer in one single image that combines the two most important aspect of the film. Could be great for a film poster too.
The original blog is in Portuguese, not Spanish.
The artist is from israel. His name: Noma Bar
In the blog they say that the pictures were made by an israelist artist Noma Bar.