Exhibition | Give Me a Sign: The Language of Symbols

Give me a Sign: The Language of Symbols is on view at Cooper Hewitt from May 13, 2023 through September 2, 2024.

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Marking the 50th anniversary of Henry Dreyfuss' Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols, this exhibition examines the fascinating histories behind many of the symbols that play a critical and ubiquitous role in everyday life.

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Red and white color-blocked book cover with large title text and a sketched line drawing of a figure inside a triangle inside a circle inside a square.

Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols

Cover is bold red with with a grid of white icons

Orange book cover featuring a grid of various black icons. Wide white margin at top features title text in black.

Iconism: Designing Modern Icons and Pictograms

Book cover featuring solid black background and six rows of seven small button pins (from top to bottom). Each button pin is different, also, they are set up in a rainbow color assortment , with red, yellow, pink, purple, green, blue, grey, and black pins.

Button Power: 125 Years of Saying It with Buttons

Orange book cover featuring a black and white image of a raised fist; white text, rotated 90 degrees, overlaid, reads "STRIKETHROUGH"

Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest

The Society of Signs: Pictograms, Signs of Life, Emojis

Off-white book cover featuring an illustration of a person walking and painting a large, yellow peace symbol. He is followed by a parade of people with peace flags. Title text in a sketchy style above.

Three Lines in a Circle: The Exciting Life of the Peace Symbol