A pictogram, also called a pictogramme or pictograph, is an ideogram that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and graphic systems in which the characters are to considerable extent pictorial in appearance.

Pictography is a form of writing which uses representational, pictorial drawings. It is a basis of cuneiform and, to some extent, hieroglyphic writing, which uses drawings also as phonetic letters or determinative rhymes.

Early written symbols were based on pictographs (pictures which resemble what they signify) and ideograms (symbols which represent ideas). Ancient Sumerian, Egyptian, and Chinese civilizations began to use such symbols over, developing them into logographic writing systems. Pictographs are still in use as the main medium of written communication in some non-literate cultures in Africa, The Americas, and Oceania. Pictographs are often used as simple, pictorial, representational symbols by most contemporary cultures.

Steven Rinella is an American writer, television personality, hunter, and outdoorsman. He is the author of the The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine and American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon, as well as numerous magazine and newspaper articles about hunting, fishing, food, and travel. In 2011, he hosted the eight-part Travel Channel series, The Wild Within.

Rinella was born in Twin Lake, Michigan on February 13, 1974. He was raised along with his two older brothers, Matthew and Daniel Rinella. He began hunting and fishing at a very young age, and was commercially trapping muskrats by the age of ten. Rinella graduated from Reeths Puffer High School in 1992. He finished his college degree at Grand Valley State University in December, 1996, after attending classes at Muskegon Community College and Lake Superior State University. Steven received a Masters of Fine Arts in 2000 from The University of Montana-Missoula.

The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine was published in 2006 by Miramax Books. After stumbling upon Auguste Escoffier’s culinary milestone Le Guide Culinaire, Rinella embarked on a prolific quest to procure all the ingredients necessary to recreate an elaborate forty-five course meal using Escoffier’s recipes exclusively. Rinella accounts his pursuit of these ingredients as he traverses the country in a year long culinary and hunter-gatherer escapade. The documented adventures are visceral experiences that ultimately bring to light the modern disconnect between ourselves and what we eat. "Outdoorsman and travel writer Steven Rinella brings bohemian flair and flashes of poetic sensibility to his picaresque tale of a man, a cookbook and the culinary open road."