Chapter 1 of This Means This, This Means That Second Edition: A User’s Guide to Semiotics explains the message behind signs and signing. Semiotician, Ferdinand de Saussure, believed that signs had two elements. The two elements were the signifier and the signified. The signifier means the message of the sign. The signified means the medium of communication of the sign. For example, a bathroom sign with a stick figure of a woman indicates a women’s bathroom, a men’s stick figure for a men’s bathroom, a handicap sign for wheelchair accessibility, and both figures together for a unisex bathroom. The signifier is the bathroom logo. The signified would be the representation of the stick figures and words.
Semiotics is the study of symbols and what they represent. We know so many international symbols. The symbol of justice is a scale. There are other symbols that are easily recognizable such as the no smoking, fragile, and peace sign. Then, there are multiple symbols for one meaning. For example, there are many symbols for a warning sign. You may think of a red circle with a white rectangle across reading “DO NOT ENTER” or a yellow triangle with an exclamation point.
Designers always use visual communication to solve a problem. McDonald’s came out with a billboard campaign to direct drivers on the highway to the nearest McDonald’s. The designers for this campaign used sections of the McDonald’s M logo to represent highway exits the way we read them on a GPS. Below, you can see some examples of the highway exit symbols. I found this campaign very interesting and creative. It’s simple and extremely effective. I want McDonald’s now.
