Our second reading assignment is an introduction to semiotics and models of communication. These two topics directly relate to how we understand communication design from a theoretical perspective.

We will be reading Hall, Sean. This Means This, This Means That: A User’s Guide to Semiotics, Laurence King Publishing, 2012 (Chapters 1 & 2). You can also take a look at an excerpt from the book that Sean Hall references: de Saussure, Ferdinand.  Course in General Linguistics  Trans. Wade Baskin, New York, Philosophical Library, 1959

 

 

Here are the questions to which you should respond in your reading response:

  • 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 that use simile, metaphor, metonym, synecdoche, irony, lies, impossibility, depiction, or representation.

The first form of written language called cuneiform was written in hieroglyphic symbols. Symbols have always been present in the way we communicate with each other, how with interpret those symbols to differ from culture to culture. We learn that symbols design and meaning can change over time. For example, the Buddhist symbol once represented something good that was taken by the Nazis and used as a symbol of hatred.

Visual design continues to push language representations by changing from factual to more possible outcomes an effort to expand the sense and meaning behind the design. This encourages designers to communicate different meanings and interpretations to viewers across their work. Signs, signifiers, and the signified, as well as non-literal devices, are being used to imply specific messages. For example, the apple the visual represents an apple but signifies temptations by the snake. This artist gave the views something that can relate to or already know to explain the mean behind the biblical text that never mentions an apple. With just language, there are limitations on how much you can interpret to get a better understanding but with a visual, you can have more clarity depending on the design. The relationship between the signifier and the signified is referred to as indexical when they are physically or causally related to each other. This haphazard connection between the two is significant because a signifier for example smoke can help us understand that it was caused by a fire. Understanding the informal links between certain signifiers and the signified may aid us in detecting risky situations.

Non-literal devices such as metaphor, lies, ironies are used to make the viewer think about what the designer meant. for example, wrestling can be considered a sport but is not a sport a simple way to show bad vs good. Another example is Hyperboles are a powerful tool that marketers and designers may use to communicate the significance of a product in an advertisement. The use of visual exaggerations is very effective in conveying to customers how your product can benefit them. Ads like Floslek sun care use the image as a way to let the consumer know that sunscreen is protecting them. The way they enlarge the product cast a shadow on the crowd of people protecting them from the sun.  

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