The Origin

[MarsVoyager]

I've searched around for the Origin sign and found this post by Tom Southwell on his design:
http://www.propsummit.com/viewtopic.php?p=54735#54735
He mention the translations "origin"/"beginning of a river"/"start".
And he tells a story on how the neon lights were produced for the movie.

It has been faithfully reproduced by Mr Webber here:
http://www.propsummit.com/viewtopic.php?p=19537#19537

I also found an artwork by Wing Gig Fong (1958) on Smithsonian American Art Museum,
I think this is the origin of what Tom used:
https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/he-who-obtains-has-little-he-who-scatters-has-much-lao-tzu-6th-century-bc-chinese-moralist



Now I wonder if someone has had this translated to English.
I haven't had much luck in trying to find a context for the quote attributed to Lao-Tzu/Laozi, possibly from Tao Te Ching:

[MarsVoyager]

Is this possibly the corresponding Unicode?
U+6E90

_________________
No artificial animals were harmed in the production

[joberg]

"Giving is better than getting"

[rickhoward]

Sorry to be just chiming in on this. I've always assumed that it was the cursive form of 源. So yes, MarsVoyager, I think it is.

My other great interest (outside of Blade Runner films), is medieval Japanese culture: this character is also used in the surname of one of the early samurai households (the Minamoto) who wanted to establish themselves as first, original, etc. for political purposes.

[MarsVoyager]

Thank you,
Joberg, I now get the generosity by-line, and
Rickhoward, for the confirmation on the Unicode, and the reference to the Minamoto name!

I was inspired to try out some calligraphy tools, this gave some nice results:
http://www.cidianwang.com/shufa/yuan1855.htm
_________________
No artificial animals were harmed in the production

[joberg]

Very nice indeed

[MarsVoyager]

I'm a bit bothered by the vertical stroke in the artwork,
as compared with the horizontal stroke in the enclosure of Origin 源 (Unicode U+6E90).

Generous 慷 (Unicode U+6177) on the other hand has that vertical stroke in the enclosure.
http://unicode.scarfboy.com/?s=U%2B6177

But, I'm only guessing here.
_________________
No artificial animals were harmed in the production

[MarsVoyager]

This is my comparison between:

• "Origin" by Tom Southwell for the neon lights, (transparent gray).
  
• "Generosity: He who obtains has little. He who scatters has much." by Wing Gig Fong (1958), (red & white).
  

The Origin (gray) has been rotated by 3 degrees and the the width has been decreased by 5%.
_________________
No artificial animals were harmed in the production

[joberg]

Looking good for sure

[MarsVoyager]

There are actually three characters in the two graphics
by Wing Gig Fong at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
They were probably created for the advertisement series Great Ideas of Western Man* (1950-1975)
of the Container Corporation of America.
They are both titled "He who obtains has little. He who scatters has much." Lao-Tzu on Generosity.

The characters:

1. The signature on (3).
   
2. The graphic used in the advertisement series, and compared earlier.
   
3. Another graphic not, as far as I've found, used in the series.
   

This is my comparison of these graphics with origin and generous from http://www.cidianwang.com/.


*) "Eastern" and "Woman" were also used in the titles of the ad series.

I'm still not sure on whether (2) means origin or generous.
But I think (1) is origin and (3) is generous.
_________________
No artificial animals were harmed in the production

[MarsVoyager]

I found that this