Free Transcript of Episode 2.3 Creativity Was Never The Same After Applying Semiosis Everyday!
Semiosis 101 Season 2, Video 3 Transcript
Hello readers.
In this free transcript for the video published on Semiosis 101 on 26 Apr 2023, we will explore in more detail how applying sign-action to connect with your target audience every day enhances your visual communication abilities.
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.
This episode draws on the third area for confusion of what semiotic signs are, which I made in the season two preview video. I discussed my observation that design students trying to grasp the fundamentals of semiotics, misconstrue semiotic signs as a tangible thing, rather than an open-ended system of Representation/Interpretation in the Audience.
In design school curricula there is limited time for a fully embedded programme of semiotics. So, those design educators like myself try to bring the theory into the students learning when we can. I describe this as a form of constructivist learning (John Dewey - another founder of Pragmatism - would be proud). In this way, with the more attentive students, I can use Peirce’s theory to explain how their ideations are successfully visually communicating what they intend to communicate. I still get design students though coming to design crits with signage in their visual research,insisting they have looked at “semiotics.”
(Watch GEN201 - Why Semiotic Signs Are Not Signage - But Signage Uses Semiotics! for what I think about that!) But this video is about the open-ended system of Semiosis as applied to Visual Communication Design. So, to get people to move away from the notion of semiotics as a thing to tick off as having been ‘done,’ let me now address the power within Peirce’s sign-action. The clue is in this compound term: sign and action.
Remember, the root of Peirce’s semiotic theory emerges from the philosophy of Pragmatism. An American philosophy, of which Peirce was one of its founders, which evaluates things in terms of the success of their practical application. It is in this Pragmatic framework, which requires practical application to gain successful meaning, that Semiosis is beneficial to designers’ and illustrators’ practice.
As I have stated in past Semiosis 101 videos, the circular relationship in Semiosis (sign-action) between the Concept, its Representation, and its Interpretation is powerful. We can also state this as an open-ended relationship between the Client/Creative/Audience.
Now these are designer-centric terms I place over Peirce’s obtuse terminology, as a more accessible meta-language to interface between Peirce and the effective application of his theory. Why do I in Semiosis 101 do this? Well, let me repeat the statement above with Peirce’s terms re-established and see which you find more understandable…
“the circular relationship in Semiosis (sign-action) between the Object, Representamen, and Interpretant is powerful.”
…I rest my Semiosis 101 case.
In my explanation of Semiosis’ power I have now personified the determination flow as between the Client, the Designer or Illustrator, and the intended target Audience.
“Why personify the theory in this way?” I hear some of you ask.
Pragmatism evaluates application. In Visual Communication Design we have a symbiotic relationship between three entities. In commercial design and illustration practice (as opposed to fine artists’ practice), everything begins with the Client. They commission the Creative to solve a design problem for them with a brief outlining what is needed. Designers and illustrators are both visual communicators but their practice differs.
Graphic designers manipulate type and image to visual communicate. Illustrators produce images to be used with type at some point. They design for the Client’s target Audience. It is the Audience who will arbitrate the success. There obviously are commonalities between graphic designers and illustrators. Both are visual communication specialists, and they do collaborate with each other on a professional level. They even can subcontract each other on a job-to-job basis.
One important commonality they share is the crafting of visual language to answer the brief’s requirements. Some may call this visual language
‘setting the tone,’
‘tone of voice,’
‘branding guidelines,’
‘colour palettes,’
‘creating the mood,’
‘a visual style,’
‘the aesthetic,’ etc.
It does not matter what it is called, it is a visual language of marks, typefaces, colours, shapes, lines, etc. When combined in various ways this visual language produces sophisticated imagery and design outcomes to visually communicate the messages the Client needs communicated. If the Audience is not hooked, the Client’s needs will not be met. It does not matter to Semiosis whether the Client’s needs are information to share, or an event to promote, a story to tell, or even action calls to buy a product.
Semiosis is the open-ended process of how meaning can be crafted and visually communicated. The power of the semiotic sign-action helps the meaning …the Concepts …the messages to be received by the intended Audience, in ways that they will successfully Interpret. This Interpretation is secured through effective Representation crafted by the Creatives. This Representation of the Concept happens in Semiosis at three levels: basic, existential, and socially learnt. Peirce call these Icon, Index and Symbol. But in the spirit of designer-centric explanation let us use a more adjective form to modify what semiotically we mean.
Let us use Iconic representation, Indexical representation and Symbolic representation instead.
Iconic representation of a Concept to an Audience can be seen as the basic building blocks of crafting visual language. It is at this subconscious level that the Audience will perceive a line, shape, colour, mark, etc. as meaning something more than its current state. Or not.
If the former, Semiosis begins to work. If the latter, the semiotic sign has not been perceived and has no power.
If the visual language is to connect with the Audience as part of an open-ended process of semiotic communication, then the designer or illustrator needs to hook the Audience’s attention. We say this is what the aesthetic does …it attracts attention… but Iconic representation rests within the aesthetic …within the visual language, and maintains the Audience’s attention by crafting visual resemblances to qualities that are familiar to them.
The next level of how Semiosis can be employed in an open-ended system to visually communicate meaning, is at an existential level. If the first immediate level of sign-action Representation is Iconic, then the next level is Indexical representation. Like your index finger is used to point to existent things in the world, Indexical representation utilises sign-action to link the visual language to actual things the Audience will know. At this semiotic level the semiotic signs release more meaning with the Audience making connections to things, places, even ideas in the world.
This powerful leap in the Audience’s perception from qualities to existent things being semiotically communicated, is controlled by the Creative and how well they have encoded more visual clues in what they design or illustrate. What is open-ended about all this, is that a single semiotic sign can be perceived by three different Audience members at three different levels.
One Audience member may only perceive the shapes and never get any more meaning from it beyond an Iconic level. Another may see the same Iconic shapes but see they form the shape of a panda bear. An existent thing. A final Audience member may see the nested Iconic shapes that Indexically coalesce into a panda, but recognise they refer to the WWF organisation. This is an agreed meaning, a socialised meaning of agreement - a law if you prefer - that is Symbolic representation at work. Symbolic is the highest level of sign-action within communicating a Concept.
It is still the same semiotic graphic image constructed by nested Iconic marks and shapes. The Audience’s Interpretations close the determination flow loop at different semiotic levels.
To end this third season two video, we can conclude that Semiosis is open-ended and operates at different semiotic levels. The effectiveness of how much meaning the Audience Interprets from each semiotic sign, is dependent on the crafting of the Concept’s Representation to connect with that Audience. By understanding this, a designer or illustrator with minimal research on their intended Audience, can immediately improve the impact of their visual language on the Audience.
In turn, the Audience’s Interpretation of what they see can be made more pleasurable, because the qualities of the chosen visual language is attuned to their experiences, and not the whims of the Creative’s personal tastes.
Semiosis is not done, its open-ended determination flow cycle continues to reveal more meaning.
Come back next week for Semiosis 101’s first semiotic book review episode.
Watch the free video on YouTube for the full impact…