For me, design is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. However, according to Ellen Lupton & J. Abbot Miller, The difference is that language may have restrictions on sounds, syllabus, and words, while design has no restrictions in conveying data, designing small businesses, key words, shades, forms, icons, drawings, signs…

According to Saussure, in language definitions that distinguish human language from other communicative languages such as animal interaction, sentence structure is often seen as a recognition highlight of semantic code, identifying human natural language from the features of animal communication.

Signals, signs and symbols are the three related components of the communication process found in all known cultures, and they have attracted considerable academic attention because they are mostly unrelated to words or the usual concepts of language. Im believe symbols are icons that have a personality that we can see, unlike language which is auditory. Also, based on Saussure, the concept is distinction between the two united modules of a sign: the signifier, which in language is a set of speech sounds or marks on a page, and the signified, which is the concept or idea behind the graphic communication. In the history of graphic design, according to Ellen Lupton & J. Abbot Miller, modern design plays the role of visual problem solver in our lives and culture.

References

Lupton, Ellen and Julia. “All Together Now,” Print 61, no. 1 (January/February 2007): 28–30. (n.d.).

Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics (excerpt) || Ellen Lupton & J. Abbott Miller, excerpts from Design Writing Research. (n.d.).

http://web.sbu.edu/theology/bychkov/barthes.pdf. (n.d.).