Andre mercharles 

Assignment 2

Communication design theory 

Comd3504  

“Some people regard language, when reduced to its elements, as a naming-process only—a list of words, each corresponding to the thing that it names” (Saussure 65). Simply put, language is a form of communication, but it can get more complex than that. When speaking about written language, you have signs, letters, words, numbers, and a more recent innovation, emojis. Language can be spoken or written and differentiates depending on region, culture, and religion. Though language is a form of communication, they are two different things. Language is a subcategory in communication, while communication goes beyond the written language and expands to things like body language, gestures, emotions, music, etc. Communication can translate the same through all the different types of languages. 

Language in design is very important because it allows a message to come through. Without it, a designer cannot get a clear understanding of what they need to convey through their art, and the audience or client wouldn’t be able to pick up what it is the designer is trying to say. Language in design is used in a way that eliminates the necessity to verbally explain an idea. There are many pieces of art all over the world that speak through expressions and visualization and could be misinterpreted if there wasn’t the universal language designers use. This language consists of symbols and iconography. These two things relate to language because each symbol is known to have its own meaning. Most of these symbols are universal and translate to the same thing no matter the language. Symbols and icons are significant in languages as well because they can convey the message that you are trying to send without saying or writing words out, instead simply understanding what an image/ icon relates to. For example, the image of an arrow pointing left letting you know to go left without the need to spell out the words “turn left”. 

Signs, signifiers, and the signified are employed in general communication as a unit; a team working together to create communication. Sign is the designated term for what you see in your brain when you combine a sound with an image. As Saussure explains with the example of the word “arbor”, “One tends to forget that arbor is called a sign only because it carries the concept “tree,” with the result that the idea of the sensory part imphes the idea of the whole”(Saussure 67). The signifier and signified “ have the advantage of indicating the opposition that separates them from each other and from the whole of which they are parts”(Saussure 67). They separate the word from the image you have engraved in your brain of what it means. Designers use this to their advantage in graphics. If a designer were to work on an ad, and when you see it, front and center you see a cat, you would assume that the ad has to do something with cats; cat food, cat toys, cat adoption, or anything related. You would assume this without the need to even read the word “cat”. A designer is able to convey a message or tell you the reason for the ad without the need for words. Archaic numbering systems and rudimentary signage show us the process and evolution language and design have gone through. As Lupton-Miller explains, “A look at several early forms of numerical notation reveals a fluid range of forms through which human cultures have attempted to depict the order– numerical and linguistic– of the world”.