Egyptian Hieroglyph (Flying Bird Symbol)
A bird with outstretched wings represents “travel” or “delivering a message.”
Understanding the context of ancient Egyptian culture is required.
Metaphor: A bird in flight = free movement.

Both TikTok icons and hieroglyphs use pictures to communicate. TikTok’s icons show actions in their app, while hieroglyphs told stories and showed beliefs. 

We can compare Tiktok’s icons to Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. 

Considering music, Egyptian hieroglyphics tended to stick to instruments to depict music being played. While Tiktok started out as a music app and expanded to social media, it kept its logo as a musical note. Contrasting from the hieroglyphics as one is depicting an instrument and the other depicts a musical note played by an instrument, simplifying the meaning of music as universally music notes now depict that sound/music is being played. 

One other interesting aspect of Tiktok is its integration of its own emojis. Users seem to enjoy using the Tiktok emojis, which are also expressive icons sometimes more than the default iPhone ones. 

This shows that people enjoy new and different ways of expressing themselves. 

Humans naturally understand visually which is why signs and drawings can connect people regardless of what language they speak. This universal idea is why emojis and icons work. 

Sources

Gadalla, Moustafa. Egyptian Harmony: The Visual Music. Tehuti Research Foundation, 2000. 

Emojipedia. “TikTok Emoji List & Emoji Meanings.” Emojipedia, 2024, 

https://emojipedia.org/tiktok.

Baker, A. J. “Emojis Are Hieroglyphs, Says Curator of Israel Museum Exhibit.” The New York 

Times, 22 Jan. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/arts/design/emojis-hieroglyphs-israel-museum.html

Alshenqeeti, Hamza. “Are Emojis Creating a New or Old Visual Language for New 

Generations? A Socio-Semiotic Study.” Advances in Language and Literary Studies, vol. 7, no. 6, Dec. 2016, pp. 56-69, https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1126897.

This symbol in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics also expresses communication, which more accurately means speaking or having a conversation.

They convey some information, wechat chat icon metaphor dialogue, very concise. The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, on the other hand, are very vivid descriptions of movements.

From this, I have learned that the icon design tends to be more specific, so that global users can understand it. In addition, ancient characters need to be decoded, while modern ICONS are based on universal cognition and have a certain cultural generation gap. Overall, modern ICONS draw on the simplification trend of ancient visual symbols, but place more emphasis on universality.

For the symbol to compare with it, I chose the “eye” in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. It is usually associated with gods in ancient Egypt, expressing sacred characteristics, and usually contains many metaphors, such as rights and supervision.

By comparing these two, I think their common point is that they both express meanings with objects, but ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs usually have deeper metaphors, and modern icons are generally designed to make people understand faster, so that people can associate faster. For example, the current “user” icon mostly uses a simple human figure, but in ancient Egypt, “house” generally refers to temples and more sacred places. This is their difference.

I found a similar star shape on the tiktok, which means “collection”. The fact that people habitually associate stars with collecting can be seen in how much they value them.

Seba seems to me that in ancient India they were aware of the existence of stars, and perhaps even had a series of explorations of astronomy and the universe. At the same time, amulets engraved with “Seba” are believed to protect the dead from getting lost in the afterlife.

I compare the icon of sun in the weather app with the sun icon in Egyptian hieroglyphics. They both communicated light. The icon in the weather app communicate light by the line around the circle (the center of the sun), but the Egyptian hieroglyphics represent it by drawing another circle outside the center. The two icons both make sun simple and present it by a stick figure. The Egyptian hieroglyphics is a way that people communicate to each other in ancient, and the modern icon of sun are used to show temperature and time of a day.

And the Eagle in Egyptian Hieroglyphics
– In ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, the word “eagle” was often used to express concepts such as power, sky, and was also associated with divinity or kingship.
– In Egyptian hieroglyphics, as part of the writing system, hieroglyphic symbols are strongly expressed. 2.

Media and cultural context for this motif and Egyptian hieroglyphics
– Modern signs use digital media to spread and survive in social networks;
– Ancient hieroglyphics were inscribed on stone walls or papyrus as a tool for recording language and a motif for manifesting power.

I think for the significance created by these two motifs. Neither Twitter nor the Egyptian hieroglyphic eagle can be separated from the imagery of flight: the Twitter bird, for example, symbolizes free communication and the rapid transmission of ideas. The ancient Egyptian eagle: often symbolizing divine power, it also represents the mystical majesty of being high above and close to the gods of the sky. The sound of the little bluebird also represents the Twitter Tweet, in order to show the rapid spread of information. The call of the eagle in Ancient Egypt may have been seen as a symbol of kingship or divinity.

From Egyptian hieroglyphics to Twitter’s little bluebird, these two images are from very different times, but both convey information and meanings through the word “bird”.

On the other hand, the heart in Egyptian hieroglyphics had a wider and deeper meaning. Egyptians saw the heart as the center of emotions, thoughts, and the soul. The image of the heart looked like a small jar. In the afterlife, the heart was very important, and people believed it was weighed against a feather to decide one’s fate in the next life.

The metaphors used are different. In the iOS app, the heart stands for health and vitality, directly linked to medical and physical health. In Egyptian culture, the metaphor of the heart reached into moral character and the essence of life and the afterlife, symbolizing a deep connection between physical existence and spiritual morality. But I think they also have similarities. The heart icon in the app corresponds to the location of the human heart; in Egyptian culture, the heart is expressed as a small jar that can hold things like emotions, thoughts, and the soul, which means that they both have some realistic elements.

The iconography of the “scan” looks like a gesture that people usually use to express measurements, to focus on observing something or to take a picture. And for the “like” thumbs-up, “dislike” thumbs-down are straightforward for people to get a sense of what they mean through the icons. Both they and Egyptian hieroglyphics were a visual language for all to understand, through the shapes of simple iconography. But the difference between them is that Egyptian hieroglyphics only expressed simple things and were all natural. The understanding of modern icons came through technological development and more information background. Especially the “scan” iconography, who would have known what it meant before the development of human technology.