Free Transcript of Episode 1.14 Why Logos Can’t Work Without Semiosis
Semiosis 101 Season 1 Video 14 Transcript
Hello readers.
In this free transcript for the video published on Semiosis 101 on 17 Nov 2022, we will focus on the highest level of semiotic representation in Semiosis - Symbolic. Forget what you think you know about Symbols as Peirce means something specific!
Watch the free video on YouTube for the full impact…
…and here is the video’s transcript.
NOTE: As with any video transcript the tone used is conversational. The following transcript text features ad libs, and therefore should be read in the spirit of any semi-scripted video.
Let us get to the fourteenth Semiosis 101 episode on general Peircean semiotic theory for illustrators and designers. This week in around 10-minutes, we will focus on the highest level of semiotic representation in Semiosis - Symbolic.
The Symbol in a Peircean context is not what you may understand "symbol" to mean. You will see when we discuss Symbolic representation its Peircean meaning differs from your previous understanding and application of the word "symbolic". So it is important to begin today with an open mind. As words in different socio-cultural contexts have different definitions.
Peirce wrote his Pragmatic semiotic theory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To understand Symbolic representation in Semiosis in order to understand HOW to apply it into Visual Communication Design, you must first 'bracket out' any other definitions for the next 10-minutes as we explore Symbolic representation.
It will be a theory-packed 10 minutes of Semiosis but using designer-centric terms. So, stay tuned, subscribe, hit the bell, open your mind and let us go.
Okay, welcome to this week's talk.
Previous two weeks we were focusing on Iconicity and Indexical. Now we are moving up to the last of that and the highest, not just the last, but also the highest visual representation [within] semiotics of Symbolic.
We have talked before about Symbolic, about putting your ideas about what this means to one side and let us just focus in on Symbolic from the point of view of Peirce. So unlike Iconic or Indexical representation, Symbolic representation demands neither resemblance to its Concept (so that is what we are obviously designing from, from the brief. It does not necessarily need resemblance to that Concept), nor an existential connection or bond with it.
The Symbolic sign eludes individual will. Now what do we mean by that?Okay, so this idea of the Symbolic sign eludes individual will. Well, Symbolic representation of the Concept we need to visually communicate means that it is a general Semiotic sign. Now that is straight away a thing where something that is so high and powerful within the three levels of Representation, Semiotic Representation of the Concept to say that by the time you get to the highest level it is just general. But there is real importance behind that.
Okay, what we mean by general? Because where its Interpretation by the target audience, our target audience, arises from a general socio-cultural agreement of meaning. What I mean by that is within society, within our culture, we accept that when we see certain things together visually it means a bigger Concept.
So, we play on that idea when it comes to branding, etc. or any other form of Symbolic visual communication in illustration, graphic design, design in general, but especially we are talking about within branding… what we have is - at this highest level - if we craft this highest level well…we can definitely have people accept that when they see THAT it means THIS now. And THIS connection from THAT is socially and culturally agreed amongst those people.
Okay? [To] anybody else that will not mean anything, but to this group of people [in] that context…it now means THIS. Okay?
So let us move forward, and let us explore what we mean a little bit further about Symbolically and how to represent ideas. Okay, so we must distinguish, first of all, clearly between a depiction or image, as Peirce would say, and an emblem. An emblem is a mixed sign, partially Iconic and partially Symbolic.
So I have just thrown that word in there, emblem. You know, it comes from Wollen's book on Semiotics within film, within cinema. But emblem, it is emblematic, it suggests something else. So as a Symbol level, let us just refer to that now in our context of visual communication as a “logo.” And look at this [I struggle to remember name] World Wide Fund for Nature recognisable logo… featuring a panda.
What do we mean by the fact that we got the image, the depiction and the emblem. Well, when it is all put together in the logo, that is when it is emblematic, that is when it is Symbolic, because it is no longer about the panda, it is about the bigger Concept of preserving our planet's wildlife in its natural habitats, so that we have a future for our generations that come after us.
So there is a difference there between the Iconicness of the elements that come together, that forms the panda. And you can see that on the right hand side, where I have parsed the individual Iconicness of that panda shape to one place. Whereas when it is configured together into the logo, that now refers to the WWF. Okay? So it is partly Iconic because the elements that come together grab our attention, but now it is pointing us to a panda.
So we have already talked last week about Indexicallity, about the fact that we can make a jump from Indexical to an existent panda. And we can see that now… and that is how this logo helps us see that when we see these shapes in this particular order, it suggests a panda. But we are now talking about it at a Symbolic level. So it is not just a panda anymore.
This is an emblem, a logo that speaks on behalf of all endangered species. So already that image has gone from Iconic to Indexical… and from Indexical to Symbolic…. because it is got an agreed meaning that when we see THIS, it means THAT, Okay?
When we see THAT, it means THIS. So we are already moving up in power. So let us move forward. Again. A genuine Symbol… and this is what Peirce says… A genuine Symbol is a Symbol that has general meaning. General in the sense that more than one person can agree that when they see THIS… it means THAT.
You do not have to have a debate about it, that it is commonly agreed that when we see THIS, we think of Coca Cola. But all it is is just red and white and a curved shape. But it has general meaning now, that refers to Coca Cola and all its ranges…But all it is is just Iconic shapes. So again, we have got Iconicness… just the shapes and the colour.
That put together now suggests to us …who are within a society and a culture that is aware of a product called Coca Cola… then we can then go… "Coca Cola.” Indexically it points us to that particular brand of Coca Cola. So when we now see this together, we know it is Coca Cola …and that is the same image that was first of all Iconic is now working at that Symbolic level.
So a Symbol, once in being, spreads among the peoples in use and in experience, its meaning grows. So, just as the same way as it went from Iconic to Indexical in a flick of the eye, and from Indexical to Symbolic, this is because we have agreed that this particular shape, these particular colours means Coca Cola.
So that is where the general meaning comes in. That is where the power of the visual representation jumps up to where it is at that function at the highest level. If you do not know what Coca Cola is, you would just see the red and the white and the shape. If you know that this shape…the same image just moves to Indexical. And with a movement to Indexical, as soon as you get Coca Cola then you realise that this is part of a bigger Symbolic representation of Coca Cola as a brand, as a drink, etc..
The image has done nothing, it hasn't changed. It is just the target audience bringing more of their own experience into their interpretation, to get the meaning from something that is just a couple of colours next to each other. So this is where our idea behind logos and other elements of visual communication at the highest functioning level of trying to communicate the meaning of the Concept that we need to visually communicate, can work.
But it only works at a higher level if our audience can Interpret it and has enough knowledge to accept it as a general meaning of something else. So, this is where branding and everything else that we do within design at the higher functional levels cannot work without Semiosis. Okay, you do not need to know it is Semiosis… because you can interpret this in many different ways or you can apply different theories to how this works and that is perfectly fine.
But this is obviously all in the context of Semiosis. So, what we have is essentially a way of explaining how something can go from just a couple of colours to a big branded experience of THIS Is THAT. Okay?
So let us just move one step further …and just wrap up this week's talk. What we have is a Symbol …is a sign which refers to the Concept that is denotes by virtue of a LAW. Peirce calls it a LAW. By the time it gets to this highest level, it is set in place in a socio-cultural context that when we see THIS, it means THAT!There has never been a committee setting out saying, "Right, THIS means THAT" but it is just by symbiosis, people just accept that when they see THIS, it means THAT.
So, usually an association of general ideas which operates to cause the Symbol to be interpreted as referring to the Concept that we started from. This is where Peirce is really, really important to us as designers and illustrators because despite his problematic terminology most of the time, his thinking really helps us explain (to ourselves first and foremost) the power of what we do as a career path that we visually communicate…we craft visual language to actually communicate, maybe to just to one person at an Iconic level… or an idea to existent things at the Indexical level… or even on a more general basis to more and more people just through… a simple shape …which is Iconic.
But this shape, when you see it now…if you see it as Nike then you can see that it is actually working at the higher Symbolic level. All you need to see is this SWOOSH and straight away you [are] thinking "Nike." If you did not know what Nike was, you would not get that connection.
Okay, so let us move to the last part of today's talk. As I have said in the previous two videos, this is a new section, going forward for the remainder of the season one of the Semiosis 101 videos. In the first eleven videos we were just setting in place all the knowledge about Peirce's Semiosis as a theory to help visual communication designers and illustrators. Now here is the take home bits. This is how you can start to think of your practise more semiotically as you do it… as you create these things.
So… during your developments, when trying to develop branding, a logo, a corporate identity, consider crafting the Iconic "hooks." And in designing a brand archetype (more so than a wordtype) consider how the emblematic Symbolic nature of the visual language that you choose to grab the attention is built up from the Iconic building blocks.
So we can see there Nike, it is a "SWOOSH" …Iconically… it is a SWOOSH… it is this sort of shape… but through Symbolic level of socio-cultural connections it now means Nike. Nothing else… no other brand… it means Nike and that is the Iconic movement to the Symbolic. Okay?
So audiences learn to associate what they see with a perception of and a feeling toward what is being branded. And this agreed association is semiotically crafted by yourselves. By now being aware of the power that is in your hands and your heads, you can really start to focus your attention in the right places, semiotically speaking, to enhance how you visually communicate.
So that is it for this week, come back again next week when we will have another talk. And that is it for now.
Watch the free video on YouTube for the full impact…