Communication, be it in the rural, urban, traditional or contemporary setting involves the sharing of information. It makes common to two or more what, abinitio, was the monopoly of one. This involves symbols, signs and, of course, graphics at large. It is basically a continuous process of passing on information from one generation to another, persons to persons, communities to communities and from organisations to organisations through symbols. Man has always taken great pains in developing records; this is to prevent his economic, social and cultural achievements from being erased from human memory. Carvings made on stone in the caves by ancient men, for instance, were a kind of record meant to preserve their ideas and achievements. Amidst these achievements, Ibibio traditional symbols of graphic design seem to be grossly ignored due, perhaps, to western ideologies. Till today, most people are conditioned to see the traditional communicative media as being fetish or as not being fashionable. Nevertheless, human achievements including advancement in culture will continue to be recorded and preserved for the benefit of future generations. This informs the need for the appraisal of selected Ibibio symbols of communication for clip art environment. It was against the framework of dissuading the obnoxious thinking, and to prevent the cultural memory of the symbols from erasure that this study was undertaken. The objectives of the study were to identify Ibibio symbols of communication for clip art environment; discuss the functions of some Ibibio symbols of communication for clip art environment and; present selected Ibibio symbols of communication with similar meaning to the ones in the west and oriental worlds. The study depended on primary and secondary sources of data which was presented through descriptive methods. The paper recommends that graphic artists should not lose sight of the symbols from their respective local environments. They should allow their environments to have some degree of influence on them. The study also made a plea to contemporary designers of communication systems to include Ibibio symbols of communication in their design contents. The study found out that constant documentation of the Ibibio traditional symbols of communication would get the symbols to global visibility.
PhD Itoro Domobongse Ekong (Fri,) studied this question.