Our second set of readings are excerpts from two books; Ferdinand de Sausurre’s Course in General Linguistics and a collaboration between J. Abbot Miller and Ellen Lupton entitled Design Writing Research.

The Saussure reading consists of the first two chapters from Part One of the Course, which are in this PDF: Saussure_CourseGenLing_Exc

The Lupton-Miller reading includes 3 short essays – Counting Sheep, Modern Hieroglyphs and Language of Dreams – which can be found in this PDF: LuptonMiller_DesignWritingResearch_Exc

Here are some questions for these readings:
What is language? And how is it different from communication in general? What role does language play in design? How are symbols or iconography related to language?  How are signs, signifiers, and the signified employed in general communication? Or in graphic communication?  What facts or details from these texts provoke ideas for developing new design strategies? What can archaic numbering systems or rudimentary signage show us about language or the design process?