Pictograms are part of our day to day living. They are everywhere, and we could know all kinds of helpful information from them. Aside from making your data look nice, pictograms can even make the data presented memorable. But who do you think created them? How long have they been useful to us?

The very first pictograms were written on caves and stones about 18,000 years ago. People used them to document events and other information. As years passed, they became writing systems like hieroglyphs in ancient Egypt and Chinese characters.

Today, pictograms are becoming more and more valuable as our world develops. They are very beneficial in areas where people from other parts of the globe gather. Take the Olympic games, for example. Pictograms are helpful because people can understand them easily. People use them for indicating sports events as well as facilities like restaurants and restrooms. Moreover, we can also see pictograms in public places such as train stations and shopping malls.

Olympic pictograms are new nowadays. In 1964, Katsumi Masaru, together with a team of designers, created the first Olympic pictograms for the games in Tokyo. They combined ideas from Europe and kamon, traditional Japanese designs for family crests.

During the Tokyo Olympic Games, their pictograms were used in sports events as well as restrooms and restaurants. Moreover, some of the pictograms are now in use globally. Katsumi Masaru and the team of designers gave up their rights to these designs so that they would become international common property.

Ever since the Tokyo Olympic Games, the host countries have made different sets of pictograms. In the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968, they applied colors from traditional Mexican art to their pictograms. Meanwhile, in Australia, boomerangs were added to their designs. In China, the pictograms were like calligraphy. For the London Olympics of 2012, the pictograms were similar to real pictures. Through time, Olympic pictograms may change but the Tokyo Olympic pictograms set the standard for the Olympic pictograms.

Well, maybe, my explanation was not adequate. Yes, ruminating is not good for our mental health. A lot of studies show that the more you think about your hardships and mistakes in the past, the more likely you are to experience anxiety, frustration, and depression. In other words, the more you think about your problems in the past, the harder it is to regain your mental health.

My father always says “You are what you do, not what you say.” Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown-ups say you love us. I challenge you, please make your actions reflect your words. Thank you for listening.

People wonder if there is such an entity as personality inside us. I think we watch a person’s behaviors and describe the person as in “She is optimistic about everything” and “He is a rather pessimistic person. He dwells on negative events.” Well, anyway, let’s get back to the track. It will take some time to get back to normalcy. We don’t know how long it will be.”

Pictograms are often used in street signs, buildings, train stations, schools and the likes. They help foreign travelers read and understand signs easier. However, pictograms can be confusing sometimes. For example, the road work ahead sign could mean different things. It could be a man digging or it could also be a man opening his umbrella on a windy day.

One’s cultural background could affect his or her understanding of a pictogram. For instance, some people can tell the message of a pictogram as soon as they see it, but others do not recognize immediately what it actually means. That is why when artists create a pictogram, they need to make sure that it is universal. In this way, people will easily understand its meaning even if they are not familiar with the culture.

Pictogram is considered an important tool for communication. As it becomes more and more popular, many people are curious if pictograms would eventually be the language of the future.