Fringe Symbols
From Fringepedia - The FRINGE wiki
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| This page contains semi-canon information. Semi-canon, or partial canon, describes information garnered from sources other than the originally aired episode... sources that are likely to contain references and material provided by both the Creative-Staff and by persons officially associated with the production, distribution, marketing, etc… While it is fully expected that the Creative-Staff had some input into the semi-canon source, FringePedia does not consider the information a part of, or an augmentation to the FRINGE storyline. Explicit communication from the Creative-Staff on any specific semi-canon issue, is the only method to elevate semi-canon to canon, or FringePedia fact. |
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The FRINGE symbols, or glyphs, have been shown on the show, on posters, and on the Internet.
Each glyph highlights a natural element, generally with some unnatural change that is easy to overlook on initial inspection.
The glyphs displayed at commercial breaks during each episode form a code which is not easy to crack according to Jeff Pinkner [1]
Apple
| The Fringe Apple glyph has human embryos instead of seeds. Apples were given out as clues on the Fringe Scavenger Hunt. |
Butterfly
| The Fringe Butterfly has bones for its wings. Video: Butterflies are seen in the Fringe music video - "A Forest" |
Flower
| In the Fringe Flower glyph some of the petals are dragonfly wings. Like any daisy, the center has counter-rotating spirals, based on the Fibonacci sequence, and has left-right (mirror) symmetry. |
Frog
| The Fringe Frog glyph has the symbol for Phi on his back. Video: See the animated Fringe Frog |
Hand
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The Fringe Hand glyph has six fingers and is seen as a left and right hand. The yellow dot is not in the same location relative to the left/right images. It appears in every single episode during the title sequence. The hand glyph on the original Fox.com/Fringe website linked to a video of a real six-fingered man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TnH8NQxu_A |
Horn
| The Fringe Horn glyph is in the shape of a Fibonacci spiral and has the number Phi inscribed along the horn. The appearance of the horn glyph was the starting point for the 1.61803398874989484820458683436563811.com website. |
Leaf
| The Fringe Leaf glyph has a triangle, or Delta symbol on it. Original scripting referred to this as the "Prometheus Logo". Prometheus was changed to "Massive Dynamic" in final scripting. |
Seahorse
| The Fringe Seahorse glyph has the Fibonacci spiral on its side, the spiral itself is contained inside a visual representation of the golden ratio. The tail is also a Fibonacci spiral. Some images also include stick diagrams for the amino acids L-histidine and L-proline. |
Smoke
| The Fringe Smoke glyph forms a woman's face.
This glyph is sometimes seen facing the opposite direction with different dot pattern. |
Yellow Dots
| Yellow dots appear in many of the images containing glyphs, and on the various Fringe viral websites. They are a form of additional digits where a glyph represents one letter with the yellow dot in one corner, it means another letter with the dot in another corner. See the Glyphs code page for the pattern. This is similar to how Maya numbers work. Fringe fans should look for possible cyphertext content anywhere these yellow dots are found. Please report them/document them to the Codes Portal we are working on. |
Production
Buster Design created the animated videos of the glyphs for FOX:
For the on-air tease animation promotion for “Fringe,” Buster worked from the initial graphic symbols found in nature that had been developed by the internal design team at FOX. These symbols are key points for viewers to key into and to tap into the show’s science and nature themed premise. Buster developed a number of 10-second on-air tease animations which have been seen on FOX Television since mid June.
Jonas Morganstein, Buster’s executive creative director and executive producer: “The print campaign features a series of elements found in nature, like a leaf or an apple, that appear to look normal at first. But after closer inspection, you realize there are incongruous elements in the imagery – a geometric pattern in the leaf and two human embryos inside the apple. To translate these concepts into a series of 10-second teaser promos, we decided to create that same sense of surreal discovery, by opening the visuals on a normal (though eerie) scene, and then slowly revealing a tweaked/unusual detail. Our challenge was to amp up the show’s promise of mysterious storytelling, while keeping the imagery subtle enough for the viewer to say, ‘Woah – did I just see what I think I saw?”
Michael Vamosy, Senior Vice President, Design, FOX, says, “Buster did a great job of bringing our ‘Fringe’ icons to life. We’ve been using these icons in an interesting and mysterious way to lure viewers into the show with a visual puzzle. By seeing these elements move and listening to the sound design that Buster created for us, our viewers get a chance to react to them in a whole new way.” [2]
