Today is the 57th anniversary of the barcode. Google is commemorating this day with a barcode logo.

I remember discussion about the bar code while I was at Art Center – its necessary prominence on the back of any package or the front of any magazine – being the downfall of all that is good design. Everything designed for inventory, sale and tracking had to have a barcode and therefore designers had to accommodate its presence, and for many creatives this was regarded as an intrusion.

On its own, the barcode is aesthetically sound. It employs implied line, a full range of value contrast, decently proportioned linear and numeric elements, and a varied alternating rhythm. Its function requires it to be achromatic.

The original, patented concept was a series of circles. The striped version we’re used to made its debut in 1974 on a pack of gum.

I chose to celebrate today by sorting back through some older work and pulling out an illustration I created back in 1986 (have I been doing this for that long? Wow.) – my own Ode to the Barcode. Of course, my ode to this striped hero of tracking and scanning was in the form of a visual pun, incorporating the striped graphic into the striped surface pattern of an everyday zebra.

©1986 & 2009. Alvalyn Lundgren. All rights reserved.