It is often assumed that gestures are more iconic than signs, as they do not have to conform to a linguistic system. This study introduces an expanded methodology to explore (a) the relative transparency and iconicity of silent gestures and signs, and (b) the iconicity of three individual parameters (handshape, location and movement). We elicited meaning guesses and iconicity ratings (both whole-item and for each parameter) from sign-naive participants for both gestures and signs. Pilot data provide no evidence for differences in transparency and iconicity of gestures and signs, but we do find interesting examples of signs rated as more iconic than gestures. The iconicity of all three parameters is correlated with the iconicity of the whole item in both gestures and signs, but there may be a role for iconic strategies and the saliency of individual parameters. With this method, we provide a novel, more fine-grained manner of investigating iconicity in the manual modality.