Preserving Rathlin’s communal identity and cultural heritage in emerging digital environments.

Background
Future Island-Island researchers worked with Rathlin community in a participatory design process to develop a new icon based visual language system. This bespoke icon set, unique to Rathlin Island and inspired by communal identity, aims to preserve Rathlin’s cultural heritage in new and emerging digital environments.

Aims
This research aims to:

- Capture and preserve the communal identity and cultural heritage of Rathlin through development of a new icon based visual language system
- Create an authentic visual language that leverages the value of Rathlin’s heritage in new and emerging digital environments

Rationale:
Visitors to Rathlin will instantly experience its unique cultural heritage through its people, art, stories and environment. Visitors can immerse themselves in its history and artefacts, or contemporary ways of life. This holds great value for the Rathlin community, however, doesn’t transfer effectively to existing digital experiences. The Rathlin community currently operates a suite of digital tools such as web pages and various social media activity which are created and operated independently. As Rathlin begins to express itself culturally and economically in new and emerging digital environments, it is crucial that its unique sense of communal identity is leveraged and communicated to new audiences.

Jafarli (2025) highlights the significance of unique place branding to ‘increase reputation, attract investment and foster a sense of pride’ among local populations. The alignment of visual and cultural identity increases the possibility to develop authentic imagery, and this approach strengthens the connection between place and community members and is more likely to appeal to visitors and tourists. Significantly for this research, the participation of residents is important to understand and leverage the socio-cultural meaning within any expressions of identity, with authenticity regarded as crucial to building relationships with new audiences.

Visual language and iconography can serve as a universal shorthand that can transcend language and cultural barriers. The human brain processes icons faster than text and enables more instant recognition reducing cognitive load especially in modern, cluttered digital environments. Beyond functionality and accessibility, icons can communicate stories, personality and values as well as establishing emotional engagement.

Process and findings:
An analysis of historic and contemporary visual elements such as historic artworks, cultural traditions and the natural environment were examined ( Forsythe et al, 2012; Williams, 1990; Martin, 2014) via desktop research which provided a comprehensive documentation of Rathlin’s built heritage, landscape and geophysical features and revealed details of found artworks as far back as neolithic, Viking and Celtic periods.

First hand discovery of the island presented a significant range of visual artefacts and infrastructure, primarily via the Rathlin Boar House museum, but also throughout the landscape, a number of historic and contemporary artefacts can still be directly observed and photographed. Digital sources provided a range of unique references of recent and current activity such as Stickybeak, who are focused on documenting the biodiversity of the island, and Shandragh Artists which documents the work of local artists.

This investigation revealed several consistently applied visual language features observed over thousands of years on Rathlin and still adopted today.

Three repeating visual motifs were identified which transcended centuries of cultural heritage on Rathlin: the spiral, line and circle. Spiral patterns can be traced as far back as the neolithic period and are widely used in Viking and Celtic design which integrates spiral forms into intricate patterns and detailing evidenced by the Rathlin Brooch and the elaborate spirals of the Rathlin Mount or the more contemporary artwork of the Citizens’ Panel Bowl and various wood carvings around the island depicting animals. The spiral remains a key motif in Ireland and is an enduring symbol of artistic production across many cultures and is still important on Rathlin. This is often combined with geometric use of the ring & dot motif, beaded edging, and concentric circles which appears to add symmetry and order to visual elements. There is a historic and contemporary use of line used in varied forms to represent objects or add decoration. This is evident in the ship graffiti found across 6 sites in Rathlin dating back to the 18th century. Lines are used to create geometric shapes from which complex representations are created. There is consistent use of angular and hatched linework which effectively creates texture and adds expression.

These basic shapes have been deconstructed from analysis of complex visual patterns compared across time. They now form a basic visual grammar to establish a unique set of rules from which digital ready icons and pictograms can be created that will enable Rathlin to express itself in new technological contexts and preserve its communal identify and cultural heritage.

A series of community workshops served to identify appropriate categories and icon types such as landscape & nature, arts & crafts, architectural vernacular, cultural heritage & stories and economy & livelihood, before an initial suite of icons were developed. Community members reviewed the visual language and icons and were invited to provide written, verbal feedback or sketch new ideas during discussion.

Impact
A set of 19 icons were developed from this research and used as illustrations to support the telling of the oral histories of Rathlin, as published by Dr Bates, Dr Forsythe and Dr Fomin in a book entitled ‘Resilient by Nature: Stories of Self-Reliance and Sustainability on Rathlin Island’ (2026).

A further expression of these icons has been used to illustrate and provide cultural context within the development of infographics, a printed publication and web pages which tell the story of biodiversity on Rathlin.