What Does It All Mean?

With Study of Proportions, Leonardo Da Vinci is giving and exact representation of the human body, and the proportions of its characteristics. What is first evident about this drawing is that it is of a naked male human being with his arms and legs stretched outward. It is also very clear that this person is standing inside of a square and a circle, which his fingers, feet, and head all touch. What is not so clear is that the torso, arms and legs are all segmented into parts of proportional length. This image does a great job of representing the human form because it is very clear that this person has a body that is symmetrical and proportional and that geometry is a definite part of nature.

Coit Tower is more then just a icon of San Francisco, as a lot of locals know, but to people who don’t know the history of The City might not know that there is a deeper meaning. This magnet for tourists is a memorial to the Fire Fighters of San Francisco, those of the past and present. What makes this building abstract is that the tower was inspired by the nozzle of a fire hose. You can probably see it now: the long, solid base is  the handle and the archways near the top are where the water escapes. I think this is a great way to memorialize the fire fighters in the city because it is a very powerful piece of architecture, but is easily recognizable as having a fire hose feel.

Since I ride my bike every day, sometimes up to two hours in the saddle, I have become very found of the bike lane symbol. It is a very basic line drawing of a torso with a helmet on, one leg bent, between two circles with and arrow above it. It is such a basic group of lines, but it is so easily recognizable as a bicycle. It is also a great symbol because it is pretty universally recognizable. Most any place that you go the symbol for someone riding a bicycle is going to be almost identical. This is not hard to accomplish when you reduce the the bicycle to it’s two wheels and have the rider with a bent leg to represent that it is on pedals.