Iconspeak, Clever T-Shirts Featuring Universally Recognized Symbols for Simple Communication

A photo posted by ICONSPEAK (@iconspeak) on Mar 31, 2016 at 2:35pm PDT

Iconspeak is a very clever line of shirts and accessories that feature over 40 different universally recognized symbols for such items as phones, plane, wifi, restaurants, cars, bicycles, and hotels, in order to facilitate easier communication in situations when words aren’t understood. The idea was formed when two friends were motorbiking across Vietnam and needed a repair shop.

When were you the last time in a situation where no language or hand gesture that you master was sufficient to get you what you wanted? Imagine you are abroad – in a foreign country, in a foreign culture, maybe while traveling the world. That’s what we did, traveling the world – partially, well the three of us combined almost completely. In the furthest and deepest corners of our world we were repeatedly left with no words, either in breathtaking awe due to the sceneries or in empty silence, due to our lacking linguistic talents. Such situations got us thinking about how to bridge language barriers with utmost simplicity, on a global level. The answer came to us after a remarkable experience in the depths of Vietnamese backcountry. …ICONs. Because with ICONs, you can SPEAK, you can SPEAK to the world.