Graphics--written language, charts, graphs, diagrams, interfaces--serve a number of functions: to attract interest and adorn, to record information, to promote memory, to organize information in order to facilitate inference and discovery. To do so effectively, they use elements and the spatial relations among them meaningfully, forming a rudimentary semantics and syntax respectively.  An examination of graphics produced by children and adults from many cultures reveals common underlying cognitive principles in the use of space and the elements in it to convey meaning.