Communication Theory

Signs and symbols are around in the world and need to accurately relay there message to an audience in the most redundant way possible. A good example of a piece of design that can be related to the Shannon and Weaver's communication model is the male and female pictograms for toilets. Using the Shannon and Weaver model the male and female pictograms are the information source and are transmitted 


Due to where the images are situated they are usually placed with a high amount of noise around, such as other signs and symbols. Other possible sources of noise can be the eyesight of people, if the sign or symbol has been defaced or graffitied. If the sign is obscured this can create affect whether or not the information is transmitted to the receiver and is decoded. Looking at image below they are simple images that can be recognised as a person (people) with the female image pictured in a dress and the male image without the dress there is a clear difference between the two, but at the same time they can linked to one another because they are a similar style to each other.


These pictograms are found within the public domain with the need to communicate as much information as possible with as little information being lost between the transmission to the receiver. These images are redundant due to fact that they a highly predictable, with as little information as possible, the images rely on convention. All over the world similar images are used to communicate male and female toilets, they may be different but the audience can relate these images to what know to mean male and or female. This is not a piece of design that includes entropy as entropic design is less predictable, with a higher volume of information for the receiver to decode. Entropic designs are usually unconventional as they are usually aimed at a more specific and smaller target audience as apposed to a sign or symbol that is designed for a large audience.