Hall, Sean. This Means This, This Means That: A User’s Guide to Semiotics, Laurence King Publishing, 2012. pgs 21-67

Questions / Prompts

  • How has language shaped design historically?
  • Can visual design accomplish things that language cannot? Why?
  • How are signs, signifiers, and the signified employed in visual communication? Provide examples from contemporary or historical advertising.
  • How are non-literal devices used to convey meaning in advertising? Provide examples from contemporary or historical advertising.

Reading Response

While the design of objects and symbols changes over different places and time periods, language, be it visual or literal, has always played a huge part in influencing those designs. For example, in paintings such as the one of Adam and Eve seen in the textbook, whilst the Bible had no mention of Eve eating an apple, the artist chose to use an apple to represent the forbidden fruit that Satan suggested that Eve eat. The idea of an apple being associated with forbidden knowledge or wisdom has become so well known that it’s even become a part of the iconography we see today, especially with the company of Apple.

File:Apple logo black.svg - Wikimedia Commons

The visual lanI believe that visual design can serve as a good way to represent more abstract concepts such as beauty, justice, truth, war, etc. Examples like these can be seen every day when we walk down the streets and see the signs adorning them. Signs such as the “stop hand” and “go figure” serve as clever signs that tell us when it is safe to move or when it is time to stop and let cars pass. These characters serve as signs that signify whether it is safe for us to walk or whether we need to let cars pass. Whether it is safe for us to walk or to wait and let cars pass is what is being signified.

Red Hand Symbol In A Manhattan Traffic Light, New York by VICTOR TORRES
One of the most important signs in the modern day. A LITERAL sign that signifies when a person should stop to let cars pass and when to start walking again.

Other symbols like the ones seen in the Olympic Games are also clearly effective designs that demonstrate the sport being played. Some of the greatest examples of signs, signifiers, and signified can be seen in restaurants and their logos and logo marks. For example, the iconic golden arches of the McDonalds logo mark and their phrase “i’m lovin’ it” are an example of the signifier and signified working together to create a sign. The Mc Donalds arches is an icon that represents their restaurant and their brand as a whole. In this case, when we see the golden arches of the McDonalds logo, our brain associates those arches with the chain and the food they provide. Those arches serve as the signified and every time we see those arches, we have a mental concept of what that symbol stands for. Their catchphrase of “i’m lovin’ it” serves as the signifier as it gives meaning to the logo mark. It signifies that McDonalds’ food is a place that serves quality fast food that you will LOVE. When putting together, the logo mark and the catchphrase serve as the sign that reminds you of the McDonalds restaurant. One example of nonliteral devices being used in advertising to sell something can be seen in ads that sell watches and luxury cars. Oftentimes in these ads, there will be hyperfocus on a well-dressed, well-groomed male. The ad will sometimes use other imagery like the man stepping out of an expensive mansion or him walking down a pristine hallway in a suit whilst wearing said watch or driving said car. By using imagery such as this, the consumer begins to associate wearing those watches or driving those cars with wealth and power. This type of nonliteral communication is extremely effective and lures consumers in with the false promise that if they own their specific product, they will be rich and powerful.

These Sexist Ads for Luxury Watches Sparked Anger and Apology, But Is the Brand Even Real?
These now removed ads by Mariner Watches utilized these photos as a way of non-literal communication to show how their watches can make you have power over women.

Advertisements such as this one utilize lies and deception in order to get their message across. The way the mans’ hands consume the womans’ neck and the compromising way the female looks up signifies that wearing one of these watches will allow you to feel powerful and dominate women. This is, of course, a lie and is a sexist method used to goad men into buying these watches in the hope they can feel the same sense of power the men in those ads feel.

Annotations

  1. When there is a physical or causal relationship between the signifier (i.e., the photograph) and the signified (i.e., what the photograph depicts), the non arbitrary relationship that exists is said to be indexical.
  2. Whatever you think of this work, and however you would wish to judge the person or thing that made it, it is hard not to be influenced in our judgments by what we take to be the intention behind it.
  3. In this instance, our ability to decode and interpret the message depends very much on what we know about, and how we judge, the historical events that surrounded the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald.
  4. Metonym met·o·nym: noun a word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated. For example, Washington is a metonym for the federal government of the US.
  5. That which is not possible has meaning for humans in a way that it cannot for other animals. Other animals are limited because they are actually too literal.
  6. What is fascinating about children is that while they are often literal in their approach to perception, they are naive as regards the conventions of representation.