Semiotics and Graphic Design

As a people, we are sign using creatures. We decode meaning from compositions with subconscious ease.* We stop at red octagons, smoke in designated areas, and change our outlooks based on the season. Our desires and even our identities are being shaped and altered by the signs that surround us.

As Designers, it is in Our nature to commune through aesthetics. To this end, We have become knowledgeable readers of signifying systems. And while We are able to pull meaning out of what We see, it is just as important to be able to breathe meaning into what We create. To do this, We must have an understanding of how meaning is formed and how the viewer can derive meaning from the combination of words and image.* This Visual Language shares much in common with the spoken word. Being in a unique position, we carry the burden of purveyors of that Visual Language.

It is Our responsibility as Designers and Our duty as the proprietors of this knowledge to employ it with effectiveness and caution. However, it has become apparent that there is a growing attitude that Designers can carry Our burden with little or no knowledge of Semiotics. Semiotics being the basis for
communication through sign-constructed systems.

As Designers We have been given the responsibility of shaping the world We live in through advertising, packaging, and public opinion. We cannot do this without fully understanding the fundamentals of communication theory.

We MUST take a stand against this malpractice of Design. In order to properly execute Our unique role as the purveyors of Visual Language, We must be masters of this Visual Communication; taking into account Our understandings of signs and what they signify.

 

To learn more about this topic, visit The Designer's Decree.

*Crow, David. Visible Signs. Switzerland: AVA Publishing SA, 2003.