Free Transcript of Episode 1.1 The Elephant In The Design Studio
Semiosis 101 Season 1 Video 1 Transcript
Hello readers.
In this free transcript for the video published on Semiosis 101 on 28 Jul 2022, we define the two forms of semiotic theory. We will see how Semiosis - Peircean semiotics - is relevant in commercial creative practice, by aligning our design processes to Hall’s semiotic journey.
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.
Okay, let us get to the first episode on general Peircean semiotic theory for illustrators and designers. Today in around 10 minutes we will focus on the elephant in the design studio - theory.
We will see how Semiosis - Peircean semiotics - is relevant in commercial creative practice, by outlining our design process to Hall’s Semiotic Journey. I will also define the two forms of semiotic theory.
It will be a fact pack 10 minutes that will prepare you for what this channel will give you knowledge of semiotic theory you can apply to your creative work to improve your visual communication skills. So stay tuned, subscribe, and let us go.
So the elephant in the design studio that we are going to focus on during this 10-minute talk, is about the designer's knowledge and what the designer creates.
So the visual communication designer - whether or not you are a graphic designer, illustrator, motion designer, whatever - this is where we are talking from.
So, Polanyi in his book “The Tacit Dimension” talks about tacit knowledge. That is how graphic designers and illustrators sort of describe how their knowledge comes about. They just do what they do, because that's their training.
They feel instinctively that is what they're doing. But it's a lot of theory that underpins that, whether or not they realise that or not.
So this is what Polanyi talks about indirectly in his book on tacit knowledge. He talks about tacit knowledge as a way of suggesting that the work created by the designer comes fro a knowledge “we cannot tell” because we can't put that into words of how it works… we just know it works.
We have what he calls wissen and können. We “know what” is to be done… which leads to “knowing how” to do it. So they're the two things that underpin how designers - visual communication designers - discuss their work through tacit knowledge.
So that tacit knowledge is really underpinned by a lot of theoretical knowledge. The “knowing what” is to be done - Wissen - which then leads to “knowing how” to do it - Können.
Within what Polanyi is talking about here - from a visual communication designer and illustrator's point of view - is the fact that the theoretical knowledge is to “knowing how” to do things.
And that is what the focus of these videos are all going to be about, in regards to semiotics, Peircean semiotic theory, which I will come onto.
So the elephant in the design studio, really in regards to theory, is the fact that in design school we do get given some theory - when we we teach it and when we learn, we do get that - we learn-through-doing, we learn how to "Know How" to do something.
But in the real world of Designerland, out in the real commercial world, and Theoryland - which is seen to be more academic - there seems to be a split between these two areas. Because in design we haven't got the theoretical legacy of hundreds and hundred years worth of theory underpinning design, we borrow design theory from other theories.
So, I am just going to come on to the important theory here, which is semiotics. And that is what the focus of all the videos are going to be about.
Okay, semiotics - the theory of signs.
In his book, “This Means This, This Means That - A User's Guide to Semiotics” Hall defines the Semiotic Journey - which is very helpful to understand how visual communicators can employ the use of signs, to enhance their visual communication, of whatever it is that they've been asked to design.
The Semiotic Journey as far as Hall is concerned, starts with the SENDER.
So to begin the actual process, there is a SENDER.
With that SENDER there is an INTENTION of communication.
There's got to be a MESSAGE that needs to be communicated - visually communicated.
That then needs to be TRANSMITTED in some media.
How effective that TRANSMISSION is going to be, it gets affected by external NOISE. All kinds of other things get in the way of effective communication.
That NOISE affects how the RECEIVER of the visual communication of the Semiotic Journey is actually going to understand what's being communicated to them.
That RECEIVER is the DESTINATION, and that DESTINATION is essentially where everything comes together, and people know what they are RECEIVING.
So let us just unpack this a little bit further.
So, we have a CLIENT.
In our case, as visual communication designers and illustrators, we start off with a BRIEF from the CLIENT. So the CLIENT is the SENDER. That is who we are working for.
The BRIEF is the INTENTION - what is the requirement of the actual project that we are creating an illustration for or a piece of graphic design for? A campaign for? Whatever it is.
WHAT NEEDS TO BE COMMUNICATED which is the MESSAGE. How do we communicate that? Well the graphic design, illustration, whatever we commissioned to do. The deliverables of that.
The NOISE - WHAT GETS IN THE WAY of this. In a way all of these videos are going to be focusing on how to effectively get beyond the visual communication NOISE of competing attention spans, directly to the RECEIVER, who is the AUDIENCE that we have, that our graphic design and illustrations need to communicate to.
The destination is EFFECTIVE VISUAL COMMUNICATION.
So, Hall talks about the SENDER, the INTENTION, the MESSAGE, the TRANSMISSION, the NOISE gets in the way, the RECEIVER, and the DESTINATION, as part of the Semiotic Journey.
And in the white, here, you can see on the screen, this is breaking it down into how that actually applies into the the day-to-day world of visual communication designers and illustrators.
Your CLIENT, the BRIEF the CLIENT gives you, WHAT NEEDS TO BE COMMUNICATED, how are you going to do that.
What's the TRANSMISSION form going to be?
WHAT’S GOING TO GET IN THE WAY of that communication.
How to get over that NOISE to your AUDIENCE, and effectively visually communicate the intended MESSAGE that is needed within there. So, there are all the things that semiotics can really help designers and illustrators to really go beyond just tacit knowledge, to have a bit more understanding exactly how they could be more effective.
So semiotics, the next question really is which semiotics do you want to follow?
Semiotics has two main semiotic theories, both of them were developed in the early 20th century, late 19th century/early 20th century. One was in Europe and one was in North America.
So, let us just quickly unpack these two semiotic theories.
We have Charles Sanders Peirce in North America. He came up with semiotic theory, and then we've got Saussure in Europe. These two people came to semiotic theory by two different paths.
Let us just quickly unpack a little bit more of that. So Peirce… for the sake of how Peircean semiotic theory is applied to visual communication design… I am using the term Semiosis to describe Peirce’s semiotic theory.
And Semiology is the semiotic theory for Saussure.
So we have these two different semiotic theories, that not necessarily are competing, but both of them have different ways of approaching how semiotics effectively works.
We have Ferdinand de Saussure. He is a Structuralist. His theory is Semiology. His theory is more linguistic.
And then we have Charles Sanders Peirce who is one of the founders of the Pragmatist philosophical movement, and his semiotic theory for - as far as graphic designers and illustrators is concerned - is Semiosis.
Semiosis is a word he defined himself, which basically means sign-action - the action of the sign.
In future videos we will unpack these, but right now these are the two particular theories of semiotics: both of them follow the same Semiotic Journey - roughly. And what I will do in the future videos is unpack how the theory of Semiosis from Charles Sanders Peirce, can be, not just employed by Visual Communication Designers - graphic designers and illustrators - but also how you can apply the theory - which is really quite complex - but apply the theory into the fundamentals of the ideation, to actually help enhance your visual communication.
So come back, and watch more of the videos as they appear on this YouTube channel. And that's it for today.
So that is our 10-minutes of Peirce for this week. We can now see that theory is crucial to improving creativity, and that the Semiotic Journey is already embedded in our design process.
Over the coming weeks, we will explore how Semiosis can be applied into illustration and graphic design. I hope as creatives you agree that Peirce’s semiotic theory of Semiosis offers a lot of rich pickings to enhance our visual communication skills?
There will be another video next week, so come back.
Watch the free video on YouTube for the full impact…