Free Transcript of Episode 2.4 Why Semiotic Books Don’t Tell You How To: A Designer-centric Semiotic Book Review
Semiosis 101 Season 2, Video 4 Transcript
Hello readers.
In this free transcript for the video published on Semiosis 101 on 3 May 2023, we have a first for Semiosis 101 - a book review. With a difference. I am keen to share some of the semiotic books that helped me make sense of Peirce’s theory of Semiosis, and semiotics in general.
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.
In this episode we take a slight change of pace into a first for Semiosis 101 - book reviews - with a difference. I am keen to share some of the semiotic books that helped me begin to make sense of Peirce’s theory of Semiosis (and semiotics in general). I want to share these books partly to demonstrate that semiotics in Visual Communication Design - graphic design and illustration - is more than an abstract thought exercise after-the-fact.
I will also demonstrate the need for future semiotic books to be published in designer-centric language - relevant to designers and illustrators. On my Semiosis 101 semiotic resource Substack I have an annotated reading list of over 50 semiotic books. From this reading list I have chosen five books to review. The URLs to buy the reviewed books are in the YouTube description below.
The five semiotic books I have chosen are:
This Means This, This Means That:
A User’s Guide to Semiotics by Sean Hall
Visible Signs: An Introduction to
Semiotics in the Visual Arts by David Crow
Semiotics: The Basics by Daniel Chandler
Peirce: A Guide for the Perplexed
by Cornelis de Waal
Introduction to Peircean
Visual Semiotics by Tony Jappy
In this review, over the next ten minutes, I will quickly outline the importance of each book, and how I personally benefitted from each book. I will expand on my annotations in the Semiosis 101 Substack annotated semiotic book list. This list is a Substack subscriber download. The URL is in the YouTube description below.
Finally, I will then conclude with what we need from future semiotic books as creatives …as visual communicators …as illustrators and as designers. So let us begin with the first semiotic book on explaining the fundamentals of semiotic theory to visual people: This Means This, This Means That: A User’s Guide to Semiotics by Sean Hall.
Hall’s book was one of the first books I bought on semiotics around 2009. In 2009 I was in a new lecturing position, and I found myself being asked to teach several classes on semiotics to undergraduate designers. As a practicing illustrator between 1991-2001 I knew I had engaged in semiotics, but this was only tacit knowledge. To teach semiotics I needed to quickly understand semiotics. Hall’s excellent book provided me with both the visual examples of how semiotic signs work, plus the explanations of how semiotic theory works.
It provided me with the basics to teach a basic semiotics class, but I knew there was more to understand.
The second book review this week is Visible Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics in the Visual Arts by the late David Crow. This illustrated book is a general semiotic theory reader aimed at the broader creative industries (the Visual Arts is a bit of a give away).
Crow’s book covers a broad semiotic theory range including Peirce. I had the fortune to be asked by Bloomsbury Publishing to review Visible Signs to help David update the 4th edition, which unfortunately was to be his final edition, as he sadly passed away in 2022 at 60. David Crow was a graphic designer and a design educator, and Visible Signs is written in a designer-centric way. As a book, it remains an excellent general overview on semiotics. Semiosis 101 follows Crow’s lead but solely on Peircean semiotic theory.
Moving on, the third semiotic book I have found useful is Semiotics: The Basics by Daniel Chandler. This book is a general reader on the main semiotic theories. Unlike the previous two books that used images to explain how semiotics functions, Chandler’s book is a monograph not directly aimed at creatives in design practice. It still is an excellent book in which to go deeper in your reading into several semiotic theories.
Chandler does discuss Peircean semiotic theory, so it is best to consult the index first. What I found priceless was Chandler explained Peirce’s sign-action (Semiosis) using Michael Munday’s excellent ‘box’ metaphor. In Semiosis 101’s season one I have made 2 videos on this. Check back to 1:4 The Semiosis Box of Tricks and Bonus #2 Box Clever episodes.
Now we progress from the general books on semiotics to two books on Charles Sanders Peirce and his Pragmatic semiotic theory of sign-action - Semiosis.
The next book is Peirce: A Guide for the Perplexed by Cornelis de Waal.
This book is a great book. The title says it all. To understand why Semiosis is a Pragmatic semiotic theory, it pays to explore Pierce’s underpinning philosophical thinking. Charles Sanders Peirce was one of the three founders of the American philosophy of Pragmatism, (together with John Dewey and William James).
Pragmatism basically evaluates theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application. It is in this practical sense that Semiosis has a direct benefit to Visual Communication Design. While still a philosophical book, it does help non-semiotician and non-philosophers to get to grips with Peirce.
Finally, we arrive at the most important book I found to begin to understand Peirce’s writings.
Introduction to Peircean Visual Semiotics by Tony Jappy is a well written companion to Peirce’s own collected writings. This incredibly important book was crucial to my understanding of Peirce during my part-time PhD study (2008-2016).
Professor Jappy explains Peircean semiotic theory in a more agreeable way to non-semioticians. His book is still a philosophical book, but it is a great interface between Peirce and non-academic readers. The book covers a vast array of Peirce’s scattered writings on semiotics. At the time of reading this book, I was research-reading Peirce’s collected writing, and I used Jappy’s book as my own Rosetta Stone to decipher Peirce. Professor Jappy is aware of my Semiotic Rosetta Stone research and has kindly referred other design academics to me.
What we gain from each of these five books is a partial insight into semiotic theory, what it is, how it works, how it can be decoded. But when we get to the companion books on Peirce and his theories, we get an awareness of the power of ENCODING sign-action much earlier in the ideation phase of visually communicating.
We, as designers and illustrators, need to embrace Semiosis more to craft and enhance how we can effectively visually communicate with our intended target audiences. So we need a designer-centric explanation of how to apply Semiosis when crafting the visual languages we utilise in answering our clients’ briefs. We need to have a focus in the semiotic literature on HOW TO encode semiotic signs (to hook and communicate with our audiences), beginning at Peirce’s Iconic level of semiotic Representation.
As creatives, our designs and illustrations are not just aesthetic. They are crafted to have impact. To answer design problems, to convey information to and for the intended target audience. Professor Jorge Frascara advocates in society that what we do with visual communication outcomes, is to facilitate behavioural changes in the audience.
Peirce’s determination flow in his sign-action between the Concept, its Representation and Interpretation (using designer-centric terminology and not Peirce’s obtuse terms) is pivotal for creatives. The client’s brief contains the Concept(s) to be visually communicated. The designer or illustrator crafts the visual language to connect with the audience selecting appropriate Representation. But Peirce’s coup de grace in Semiosis is including the audience in the sign-action. The visual Interpreters in a practical application. This has become the central purpose of Semiosis 101 - how applying Semiosis proactively impacts visual communication.
So, to end this fourth season two video, we can conclude several things from the current semiotic literature.
Firstly, the positive impacts of semiotic theory, through effective application within Visual Communication Design needs to be accommodated more in future semiotic books.
Secondly, this needs to be written in designer-centric ways, using language that is accessible to designers and illustrators, rather than obtuse terminology. This needs to be sensitively done, as I am not advocating any dumbing down of Peirce’s theory, just an opening up of HOW TO apply it to aid creatives visually encode meaning to hook and connect to the intended target audiences.
Semiosis 101 on YouTube is beginning that new semiotic openness.
Come back next week as the next Semiosis 101 episode concludes the dispelling of confusion to what semiotic signs are.
Watch the free video on YouTube for the full impact…