Hello: Back in the 60’s, I was a designer for the Ampex Corporation. One day, F. Arden Farey, the manager of industrial design gave me the task to create an icon for pause since the company was marketing in foriegn markets and the word “pause” didn’t translate well in most foriegn languages. I looked at pause and finally decided that it was a “sorta” stop. After generating concepts, I decided to use the square of stop and break it up or interupt the box. A horzontal line would have given an “equals” symbol and other designs wouldn’t work well as small graphic symbols. So, the vertical was decided upon for its ease of reading but also it created what I called a “stutter stop” symbol. So, although I am Japanese American, ther is no esoteric or Zen meaning, just straight forward design problem solving.
i was employed at Ampex in Elk Grove Village, IL from 1964 to 1971, in the consumer products division on Landmier Road and Estes Ave.