I've actually had this conversation here in Japan. It was pointed out to me that Western signs are incredibly drab compared to those written with Chinese chara

I've actually had this conversation here in Japan. It was pointed out to me that Western signs are incredibly drab compared to those written with Chinese characters. The primary reasoning as explained to me was that the Chinese characters tend to be incorporated as a main part of the design, while Latin characters tend to be used in a more practical nature and supplemented with other design features. Very subjective of course, but an opinion I find myself agreeing to. For the record, Chinese characters (Japanese kanji) are considered ideographic. Pictographic implies that the meaning of the symbol can be derived from the design itself, which isn't true for the vast majority of Chinese characters. Only a small subset are actually pictographic in nature.