Graphic Design: The Yin Yang

     Graphic design is everywhere. From pieces of art work in museums, to advertisements, and even logos. It is bizarre to think about what a big part graphic design plays in today’s culture as well as the past. Nowadays you see graphic design on billboards, company logos, street signs, clothing, electronics, etc. One graphic design symbol in particular has been around for centuries and is still very apparent in our culture today: The Yin Yang, one of the most successful models of graphic design.
     The Yin Yang symbol, also called the Tai Chi diagram dates as far back as 700 B.C. and is used not only in art but also in Chinese philosophy, medicine, and to describe the two genders. Scarlett Royal’s drawing, Yin Yang portrays how Yin and Yang are opposites, yin being female and yang being male with the two coy fish symbolizing how yin yang is apparent and sacred in Chinese philosophy and culture. Yin and Yang cannot exist without one another. They are constantly changing in balance. Yin and Yang are mutually interdependent because as one increases the other one decreases, and there is a portion of each within the other, they are defined by each other in that way that they are both necessary to create the whole idea.
      In Chinese philosophy the Yin Yang symbolizes life, and how it is both good and bad, which transfers into the idea that people are both good and bad. As you can see, in the icon by KM from Sodahead.com the black portion is the bad, the white portion n the good, the white half with the black circle in it is the bad in the good, visa versa is the good in the bad, and together Yin Yang is life. Symbolizing that in life there is good and bad, and that is okay, nobody and nothing is perfect.

Icon at Sodahead.com by KM

Yin Yang by Scarlett Royal