A discussion with first year design students about semiotics

1. Graphic Ideology:
Visual communication, propaganda or persuasion

2. Graphic Ideology:
Visual communication, propaganda or persuasion
Semiotics Semiology
Charles Sanders Peirce
(1839-1914)
Ferdinand Saussure
1857-1913)
The study of signs
Semiotics

3. What's in a name? that which we call a
rose by any other name would smell as
sweet;
(Romeo and Juliet. W. Shakespeare)
Rosa
Roos
Ros
Ruusu
Posa
Bunga mawar
Warda

4. :
Sign
Sign
Signifier
Signified

5. ‘Everything is based on relations’
(Saussure, 1915/1969, p. 123)
A sign has two inseparable parts: the signifier
and the signified. The signifier is what is used
to create meaning (verbal, written or visual). The
signified is the idea it represents. When we see
the word ‘open’ (signifier) outside a shop we know
that it is communicating ‘this shop is open for
business’ (signified).
Open for business

6. ‘Everything is based on relations’
(Saussure, 1915/1969, p. 123)
According to Saussure a sign is made up of
phonemes. These are sounds which combine
to make meaning.
“These noises can only be judged as language
when they attempt to communicate an idea”
(Crow, 2007)
D’, O’, G’

7. The word ‘dog’ and a picture of one do not signify in the
same way, so it is safe to say a theory of semiotics based
on linguistics will fall short of offering a complete account
of visual signification (Iverson 1986, p. 85)
Charles Sanders Peirce
(1839-1914)

8. Saussure was ultimately concerned with the structure
(langue) rather than the use of language (parole)… Peirce
was concerned with the world we inhabit and how we use
language and signs to understand the world (Noble &
Bestley 2011, p. 92)
Charles Sanders Peirce
(1839-1914)
Interpretant Similar to Saussure’s signifiedt
Icon An iconic sign has a physical
identifiable resemblance to
that which it represents
Index While culturally dependant
indexical signs have logical,
linked associations
Symbol These signs have no logical
connections to what they
represent

9. Icon

10. Index

11. Symbol

12. Visual language is a combination of the
iconic, indexical and the symbolic

13. Denotation…connotation
• 'Denotation' tends to be described as the definitional, 'literal',
'obvious' or 'commonsense' meaning of a sign. In the case of
linguistic signs, the denotative meaning is what the dictionary
attempts to provide… the definitional, 'literal', 'obvious’
'commonsense' meaning of a sign. In the case of linguistic
signs, the denotative meaning is what the dictionary attempts
to provide. (Chandler, 2002)

14. Denotation…connotation
• ’Connotation refers to the range of secondary meanings,
either intended or unintended within a form of communication
(such as text; written, verbal or visual): the range of meanings and
intepretations of an object or thing, its qualities and impressions in
the eyes of the reader (Noble & Bestley, 2011)

15. Addresser Addressee
Encode
(the message/signal)
Decode
(interpret the message/signal)
Encode-decode. First coined by Hall (1973)
Addresser-addressee. First used by Jacokbsen (1960)

16. “Meaning is not ‘transmitted’ to us—we actively create
it according to a complex interplay of codes or conventions
of which we are normally unaware”
(Chandler, 2002, p.14).
Addresser Addressee
Encode
(the message/signal)
Decode
(interpret the message/signal)

17. Syntax
All that is necessary for any language to exist is an
agreement amongst a group of people that one thing
will stand for another (Crow, 2007, p. 20).
• What's in a name? that which we call a
rose By any other name would smell as
sweet;
What's in a name? that which we call a
rose By any other name would smell as sweet;

18. Visual language, grammar and syntax
“What is expressed in language through the choice between
different word classes and clause structures, may, in visual
communication, be expressed through the choice between
different uses of colour or different compositional structures”
(Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 2).
“ two kinds of participants, represented participants (the people ,
the places and things depicted in images), and interactive
participants (the people who communicate with each other
through images, the producers and viewers of images ”
(Ibid, p. 119).

19. Participants, circumstances, vector,
actor, goal,
Signified: Books are magical methods of
transport. Signifier: A book metamorphosed
into a flying carpet. Vector: Left to right
diagonal movement in perspective. Actor:
figure on flying carpet. Participants:
a variety of objects and figures.
Circumstances: participants which are less
essential for meaning to be made. Goal: A
book metamorphosed into a flying carpet is
carrying a person to dreamland
(dreamland is mentioned in original written
text).
Vector— the action taking place
Goal— the intended outcome
Actor— the dominant image
Actor
Goal
Vector

20. http://www.prismjournal.org/mcauley.html

21. Textual determinism
Three reading structures involved in semiotic analysis
(Hall, 1980)
Hegemonic/preferred/dominant
Negotiated
Oppositional
“An important requirement of successful advertising is clear
reception of a message with minimal or no awareness of the
technicalities of the manipulation. If everyone analysed
every advertisement, advertising would lose considerable
money” (Kellehear, 1993, p. 44).

22. Hegemonic reading
Denotation
Cowboy smoking
cigarette in outdoor
setting
Connotation
Freedom
Independence
Hard work
Masculinity
Alpha male
Rebellious

23. Hegemonic reading
Signified
Marlboro cigarettes
are for ‘real men’.
For moments of quiet
contemplation when its
time to get away from
the humdrum of
daily life.
Signifier
Male staring into
distance. Mountains
In background suggest
‘being away from it all’.
He is rugged, but clean
shaven, wears a clean
shirt, no tie so that he
appears relaxed and non
conforming. Cowboy
outfit acts as a metaphor
for being independent,
not one of the crowd.

24. Polysemy and Anchorage
Polysemy (noun)
The co-existence of many possible meanings
All images are polysemous; underlying their
signifiers, a ‘floating chain’ of signifieds, the reader
able to choose some and ignore others…
(Barthes, 1977, pp. 38/39)
anchorage”
In all these cases of anchorage, language (written,
verbal) clearly has a function of elucidation… anchorage
is a control, bearing a responsibility — in the face of the
projective power of pictures… the text thus has a
repressive value (Ibid, p. 40)
Roland Barthes
1915-1980

25. Polysemy and Anchorage

26. “our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of
which we both think and act, is fundamentally
metaphorical in nature” (Lakoff & Johnson, 200, p. 1)
(orientation) happy is up; sad is down (examples
‘my spirits rose, I fell into a depression’) (p. 15)
(ontological) the mind is a brittle object (example
‘I’m going to pieces’, ‘his mind snapped’) (p. 28)
(personification) inflation is a person (examples
inflation has robbed me of my savings’, inflation has
outwitted the best economic minds in the country’)
(p.33-34).

27. Signified Signifier
This brand
of chili is
hot
The bottle is
being held
like a lighter
Our association
with lighters
is transferred
to the chili
sauce. Lighters
give off heat

28. Signified Signifier

29. Denotative
(Describe what is in the picture)
Signified Signifier
The public only
An iceberg.
see the final ‘product’
of design. They don’t
see the ‘process’.
We know that when
we see an image of an
iceberg we are only
seeing 10% of it. The
rest lies underneath
unseen.
Robin Beaudry, 2014.
Connotative
(What does it ‘mean’)

30. An ablutionary conclusion

31. OR

32. Thank you
Mur-rom-boo
Go raibh maith agat

33. “visual communication design is a reflective, decision-making
process that is concerned with the transfer of information
from various sources into a visually dominant communicable
form” (McAuley, 2009, p.28).