Rebus

The rebus is a pictorial image that represents a spoken sound. Today the rebus is mostly used for amusement however it was a critical link in the development of the phonetic alphabet starting in Egyptian hieroglyphics. (See the "Development of Handwriting" on this site).

Shown above are two famous rebus logos from recent graphic design history. Milton Glaser's "I Love New York" is actually a combination of a rebus and a phonogram. A phonogram is a symbol (letter) that represents a spoken sound. For example the letter 'A' represents sounds, ahh or aay, etc.

Paul Rand was an American graphic designer renown for his corporate identity work from 1960—1980. Above is his rebus symbol for IBM. It is also a combination of rebus and phonogram. See entry #11 on this page for more on Paul Rand.