Most people are familiar with Poseidon's trident, a source of power, but never make the connection with today's USB symbol. The designer of the USB symbol is a mystery, but Soham Kanade offers a clue. "I for one, always like to take the route of mythological names when it comes to codenaming any project of mine. I make sure to find a name that has similar underlying meanings/metaphor as what my project is or is trying to achieve. This gives a sense of identity that I can already connect with to the project, even before I have started my work on it." The circle, square and triangle on the USB symbol represent the different devices it connects to - data, voltage, and ground. 

Soham Kanade

Symbols and their origins are fascinating. A good example of this is the context in which the present day LGBT rainbow flag came into being. Someone can express themselves symbolically, but it takes a village to catch on to its meaning.  According to Travel San Francisco, the rainbow flag is the creation of a young man in Kansas who, after getting out of the military in the early 70s, traveled to San Francisco. Gilbert Baker, the designer, at the time, started experimenting with fashion design. After meeting Harvey Milk, who was to become the first openly gay mayor in the U.S. decided to work on a flag representing the gay community. Originally, the colors were hot pink (sexuality); red (life); orange (healing); green (nature); turquoise (magic/art); indigo (serenity); and violet (spirit). The symbolism behind each choice of color is significant because they resonate, for many, with gay identity. However, while Baker searched for a place to have his flags mass produced, the company he found happened to have a surplus of rainbow flags originally intended to The International Order of the Rainbow for Girls, a Masonic youth service organization.  Today, the symbolism of the rainbow flag remain closely ties to the gay community, however the flag's colors represent the visible light spectrum as well. There is some irony in adopting the surplus flags. The Masons, an organization known for its secrecy, has in recent years embroiled in controversy over its position, in some states, on homsexuality. 

In February, Hasbro gave Monopoly game enthusiasts a chance to vote on three new game tokens. Voters chose, the rubber ducky, a penguin and a T-Rex as the pieces. Unfortunately, since the game has a maximum number of tokens, three had to go - the wheelbarrow, thimble, and the boot. Monopoly are considered iconic because their meanings extend beyond the game itself.   The tokens are symbols because they represent things that have meaning for a lot of people. 

At first glance, the term "the Mobius Loop" sounds as mysterious as the Bermuda Triangle, but it is a symbol that is as ubiquitous as the hashtag. The Mobius Loop symbol, designed by Gary Anderson in the 1960s, relies on the arrangement of three arrows in a triangular pattern. Anderson, a college student, entered his design in a contest to raise awareness of environmental issues. The loop was named after mathematician August Ferdinand (1790 -1868). According to Kushwaha, "The design is deliberately based on a Möbius strip, i.e. an endless loop that has only one surface." The food storage Tupperware uses a series of numbers from 1 to 7 to represent the "material used to manufacture the product. This internationally adopted system is called the Material Identification Code and helps recyclers' identify the resin content of plastic products and sort them out accordingly."

New York Times graphic designer Mike McQuade's encrypted @ for a story on email privacy under the Trump regime is a brilliant illustration of the contextual nature of symbols. McQuade's labyrinth design inside what we know as the email @ symbol edifies the story perfectly. Symbols are a complex form of communication in this sense because of the multiple layers of meaning applied. The first layer is understanding the context of the @ symbol as most often associated with gmail, which only started in the 1990s. Antecedent practices of the symbol seem subsumed by a more contemporary function. Add to this complex mix of ideas that of what a labyrinth of maze symbols and another set of meanings emerge. 

Credit: Mike McQuade/The New York Times

Target's latest line of T-shirts is under fire by folks who get the symbolism. 

"Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released in May 2016 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. "

Symbols of Hyper Sexualized heros. 

Female gamers in Korea are subject to all sorts of verbal/text abuse online. Why? Recently, a symbol of hope has emerged from the work of the D.Va  a Korean feminist gamers’ group, which acts for a non-sexist world where a person like D.Va could appear.

Nico Deyo writes, "According to For D.va, this kind of treatment isn’t limited to high-profile pros: in South Korea, women frequently get harassed over chat. “It is almost a routine for women gamers to listen to insults, especially sexual ones such as ‘bitch’ or ‘whore’. It is a common idea in Korea that women can’t play games well and women in high ranks would have reached that level by using hacks or by flirting to other men,” Nine explained, saying that it was “like a kind of hell.”

Emoji and Social Media Resistance

In a Huffington Post article, A Data Journalism Lab project exploring the use of emojis on social media is featured in: 

The Raised Fist Emoji Is Social Media’s Resistance Symbol

Emojis are more powerful than we realized.

The ability to process abstract thoughts was a major breakthrough for humankind. Venus figurines from the Upper Paleolithic period suggest how symbols played an active role as an extension of consciousness. 

Doomsday Clock Symbol

70-years-ago, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, used a simple graphic on its cover suggesting a nuclear disaster was less than 2 minutes away. "The Doomsday Clock, as it came to be called, has served as a globally recognized arbiter of the planet’s health and safety ever since" (Fastcompany).

The vast and sprawling Indus civilization ( 2600 to 1900 BC) occupying much of what is now modern day northern India holds many secrets. Among the secrets are the symbols used in communal and religious life.  Mallory Locklear, on the website the Verge has an insightful article about some recently discovery that reveal new meanings found in the symbols. 

Stephanie V. on Harappa notes,  "The zebu bull may symbolize the leader of the herd, whose strength and virility protects the herd and ensures the procreation of the species or it stands for a sacrificial animal. When carved in stone, the zebu bull probably represents the most powerful clan or top officials of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa."

At the same time, many scholars believe that the uniform nature of the seal, how they were made, indicates affiliation with specific groups and cities. 

History

Victorian grave symbols have religious origin

Credit: Winston Skinner

Druid Symbol approved by VA for pagan soldiers headstones. 

 Pagan and polytheist deceased soldiers can now be remembered by having druid symbol, the awen, placed on their headstones. Veteran's Affairs approved the symbol along with Thor's hammer in January 2017.  The action follows the approval of the pentacle symbol a decade ago. 

“The beehive is found in Masonry as a reminder that in diligence and labor for a common good true happiness and prosperity are found. The bee is a symbol of wisdom, for as this tiny insect collects pollen from the flowers, so men may extract wisdom from the experiences of daily life. The bee is sacred to the goddess Venus and, according to mystics, it is one of several forms of life which came to the earth from the planet Venus millions of years ago. This is why the origin of bees cannot be traced. The fact that bees are ruled by queens is one reason why this insect is considered a sacred feminine symbol.” -The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Manly P. Hall

The bee used as a symbol has been around for thousands of years. We could call this an anthropomorphic symbol because the bee is endowed with human desires qualities such as  immortality,  resurrection, diligence, wisdom and working for the common good. Symbolically, for Egyptians, the bee represented the soul. 

Bill to prohibit the use of Native American symbols in Massachusetts' public schools has been proposed by by state Sen. Barbara L'Italien.

In a recent study, researchers Ronika Power and Yann Tirstant, note,

• "The interment of bodies in ceramic vessels, or ‘pot burial’, was a widespread practice across the ancient world. Commonly associated with poverty, and with child and infant burials, the reuse of domestic vessels for burial has been taken to indicate that low value was assigned to the containers and their contents. New analysis urges a more holistic and culturally situated understanding. Contradictory evidence reveals that this burial practice was also used for adults and is represented in high-status tombs. Far from being recycled ‘rubbish’, the ceramic containers may have reflected symbolic associations between pots, wombs and eggs, facilitating rebirth and transition into the afterlife."

Credit: Hollywood Sign Trust

When Californians legalized the recreational use of marijuana in 2016,  pranksters took the opportunity to change the meaning of one of movie industry's most iconic symbol - the Hollywood sign that has stood on a hillside for decades. 

Hooray for Hollyweed?

The Washington Post reported on a controversy related to the symbol of a swastika had made its way onto the soles of a popular brand of work boots. 

“We would like to issue our sincerest apologies to our customers and to anyone who was offended by the Swastika imprint that the boots left behind. The design was not intentional and was a mistake made by our manufacturers in China. There was never any intention to include any offensive designs on the products we import. We will be investigating the issue." - Conal International Trading

Mixed Messages

(February 2017) A man claimed to be an anti-Trump protester was seen in San Jose carrying a sign like this one. The San Jose Insider reported people seeing the man standing in a parking garage holding the sign, while raising his middle finger to the crowd below. 

Symbols condense and intensify the relationship between the way we interact with the world and our values, beliefs, and ideas. 

For many people, the flag of the Confederacy is a symbol of Southern pride, while for others, it is a reminder of slavery and White Supremacy. 

Credit: Wiki Commons

Symbols used to promulgate hate speech and racism continue to occupy the darker side of the human conscious. Dylan Roof accused of killing nine African American during a church meeting in 2015 arrived in court in January 2017 with racist symbols drawn on his shoes. (Chicago Tribune)

Photo Credit/Uncredited via AP 

In a mostly African-American neighborhood in Kansas City is a statue of a Confederate soldier guarding the entrance to a cemetery. The memorial is one of hundreds scattered throughout the country and the focus of opponents of promoting a legacy of slavery. Credit: Frank Morris/KCUR

In the 19th century non-black performance would darkened their faces give the appearance that they were African-American. Blackface refers to Minstrels  tradition, however, promoted racial stereotypes of African-Americans as care-free, lazy, and subordinate to whites. Blackface, became symbolic of an attitude that was hostile and prejudicial. Recently, January 2016, as the nation celebrated Martin Luther King day, four White students at the University of Oklahoma posted a picture on Instagram showing them wearing Blackface. The post caused controversy and was soon taken off social media. 

Find and Use Emoji Symbols on Your Computer

Evil symbols

In 2012, Adidas promoted a $350 sneaker with what appears to be shackles attached. Poor judgment on the part of a shoe giant sneaking to compete in an American market where a legacy of slavery remains in the minds of many. 

Online retail giant Amazon was forced to pull Indian flag-themed doormats off its Canadian website after being reprimanded by the Indian foreign minister, who demanded that the retailer take down the item “immediately” and issue an “unconditional apology.” - RT

Make America Great Again named 2016 symbol of the year. 

Affiliates of Stanford’s Symbolic Systems Program have chosen the “Make America Great Again” hat as the Symbol of the Year for 2016, in their fifth annual vote for notable symbols.

The citation for the Symbol of the Year reads: “Donald Trump’s red cap became a widely recognized symbol and effective distillation of his campaign.  - Stanford University

During a Womens' March one day after the inaugration of President Donald J. Trump, a new symbol of solidarity emerged. Protesting the new president's admission of alledgedly grabbing a woman's genitals, women at the march were seen wearing pink "pussyhats." The gesture speaks louder than a thousand words and anyone wearing the hat sends a clear message about this distaste for the president's behavior toward women. In fact,  one of the hats worn during the protest is now on display at the London Museum.

Credit: Chateline.com