Graphic Objects and their Contribution to the Image of the City

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between graphic objects and urban environments by adopting a critical stance towards the notion of image in the image of the city. It challenges the emphasis on image as a multi-sensory mental construct by revealing it to have different meanings in diverse disciplinary contexts. In exposing how a miscellaneous range of objects cited in the literature lacks cohesion and sense of function, the urban graphic object is introduced and illustrated as a pervasive epistemic phenomenon. Understanding urban graphic objects expands established ideas about legibility and how urban objects have intended and unintended graphic properties. Through considering the function of graphic communication within the function of cities and urban places, the paper introduces a framework for considering graphic design as urban design and graphic objects as urban objects.