This paper is constructed according to five sections. The first section contains the author's introduction, acknowledgements, and abstract; the second section is a literature review that examines how vernacular design has served as a source of graphic design, and the reasons for the change and development of graffiti's primary visual language and visual forms; the third section takes a semiotic methodology and uses Chicago's Wicker Park and Mexico City as the objects of the case study; the fourth section contains the specific conclusions of the study and a comparison of the specific meanings of the use of graffiti symbols between the two regions, as well as expectations for future projects; and the fifth part is the REFERENCE.

This paper focuses on how graffiti, as one of the newer art forms transitioning from vernacular design to graphic design, was used to document and compare two areas of Chicago in terms of their graffiti art and forms of communication. Through their similarities, it shows how vernacular visual symbols such as graffiti can inform graphic design as a form of communication. It also helps the viewer understand the relationship between graffiti and vernacular semiotics and its cultural and racial underpinnings.

Methodology:

The methodology utilises semiotics for analysis, exploring the existential meaning, similarities as well as differences between the standard symbols for each area. The link between the graffiti itself and the wider structure of meaning of graffiti as a visual symbol was also explored

Case Study:

Chicago's Wicker Park and Mexican town were used as case studies. The former is part of an area inhabited by an economically high-income group, which is known for its artistic attitude and avant-garde mentality, while the latter is an area of heavy industrial development, with a lower-income population and a reputation for gang activity.

Wicker Park: communicates with its audience through the use of symbols as the visual language of the area. The uniqueness that each symbol possesses aligns with the sense of community in the area. Therefore, graffiti serves as an active and organic symbol system in the community, and the graffiti markings not only demonstrate the symbolic language of the graffiti artists, but also the artistic attitude of the Wicker Park area towards graffiti culture. It is the result of an interplay between the old and the new and the trendy, as well as a product that is unique to the culture.

Mexican town（Little Village）: As an area known for the gathering and activities of various gangs, the security environment is not guaranteed accordingly. People choose to use graffiti to express their thoughts or dissatisfaction with the government. Their graffiti style is more wild and violent. The most famous is the ‘Anarchy Symbol’, which is associated with chaos or New World Order. The viewer understands these graffiti symbols through a unique sense of local culture.

1.In The Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols

2.Olympic chiefs under fire for 'puerile' logo

3.Street Logo. New York: Thames & Hudson.

4.Upside down cross and what it means [Msg 4]

5.The Truth About Runes

Fonts：

Nineteenth Century Ornamented Typefaces

Graffiti：

1.Lift and Separate: Anarcho-Graffiti in New York City’s Lower East Side.

2.Clean Ups & Graffiti Removal

3.Aerosol Kingdom - Subway Painters of New York City

Vernacular：

1.Lift and Separate: Typecast

2.graphic design and the quote vernacular unquote

3.Low and High: Design in Everyday Life. Eye Magazine

Design history：

1.A History of Graphic Design (3rd ed.)

2.Latin King. February