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  Ellen Lupton – J. Abbot 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? What distinguishes a language from other forms of communication? How are symbols or icons related to language? How are signs, signifiers, and the signified employed in general communication? Or in graphic communication? How has language shaped design historically? Can design accomplish things that language cannot? What is the relationship between language and design in today’s culture?