A dot, an arrow or a pin on a map on your smartphone: these are what you use nowadays to indicate where your body is located. But does anyone still remember the phone box? You stood there in a square metre of space, either alone, in twos, or with your whole family, to call someone and let them know your flight had been delayed, to ask for a lift home, or to share what a great time you were having on holiday. Until 2008, Dutch law required there to be one phone box for every 5,000 citizens. Back then, only you knew where you were, unless you used a phone box to call someone and tell them. Nowadays, most of us can be located at any time, whether we want to be or not. Our mobiles are connected to Wi-Fi, GPS and phone masts. Your location is used and displayed in all sorts of ways. When you call 112, Advanced Mobile Location tells the emergency call centre where you are, even if you have turned off your location features. And we constantly share our whereabouts: live locations in WhatsApp; the festival you’re at on Snapchat; or tracking your route via Google Maps. Some location indicators have become indispensable to how we communicate with each other. We use the graphic symbol for a location so often and so naturally that we often no longer recognize it as a piece of design. The Google Maps Pin – the inverted droplet symbol – is visible, familiar and functional.