Free Transcript of Episode 1.5 Revealing How Semiosis Enhances Your Creativity
Semiosis 101 Season 1 Video 5 Transcript
Hello readers.
In this free transcript for the video published on Semiosis 101 on 31 Aug, 2022, we go a little deeper into how the semiotic determination flow between client, creative and audience works.
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 fifth episode on general Peircean semiotic theory for illustrators and designers. Today in around 10-minutes, we will expand on last week’s video explainer on sign-action (Semiosis), by going a little deeper into how the determination flow between client, creative and audience works …semiotically speaking.
In just 10 minutes or so, you will be in a stronger position to understand how semiotic theory enhances visual communication. It will be another theory-packed 10 minutes of new semiotic knowledge in designer-centric terms, to empower your future creative practice with clarity. So, stay tuned, subscribe, hit the bell and see how I reframe Peirce’s semiotic theory for Designerland.
Okay. So, in previous videos we have explored some of the fundamentals behind Peircean semiotic theory, and how it differs from the Structuralist Sausserian Semiology. One of the main important factors behind Peirce, that as visual communication designers, I believe, is really beneficial, is the fact that within Peirce’s semiotic theory, it is based upon a triad of the concept to be communicated, how the concept is represented by the graphic designer, illustrator, visual communication designer.
The important thing which makes it triadic, is the bringing into that relationship the target audience that the designs are intended to communicate to - visually communicate to - into the semiotic mix here… as part of the Semiotic Journey that Sean Hall in his excellent book, This Means This, This Means That talks about.
With it having the triad of how your visual communication is interpreted, is a really powerful factor and Peirce's theory helps designers, visual communicators, illustrators craft and enhance their own visual communication.
Once you understand what the theory is.
So bringing in now in Professor Tony Jappy’s excellent book,“An Introduction to Peircean Visual Semiotics” he really captures a closer, normal language to explain Peirce's complex philosophical language. Tony Jappy is a Professor Emiritus (I believe) in Semiotics. [But] the book itself is not written for designers.
When I was doing my PhD and I was looking at Peircean semiotic theory from fresh, I was finding it very problematic to understand what the language of [Peirce's] sign-action was all about, I had used Tony Jappy’s book as that bridge between Theoryland and Designerland. So, this is what has really brought me to do these videos, because the important thing here is to make the translation into designer-centric terms of Peirce’s terms. These three terms are designer-centric terms that overlay, as a metal language, Peirce's complex terms.
So, anybody who is a semiotician watching this, this is why I am using these terms and not the terms of Peirce because I am taking this one step further from Jappy’s book into a relevance to graphic designers, illustrators, visual communication designers. So the Determination Flow that Peirce discusses as part of the triadic nature of Semiosis (sign-action), how signs work is fundamentally connected to these three things…
The concept that needs to be communicated, semiotically. How that concept is represented, (through visual communication in our case) and then eventually how that is interpreted by the target audience. And, effectively if we have done our job as visual communicators, using effective visual communication, semiotically, then that interpretation should link back to the intended concept of why we were doing this in the first place. So, obviously we are talking here about things that are connotative in understanding.
So, denotative, you know it “denotes” exactly what it is, but semiotic theory helps you connotatively (if that is a word?) to explore other ways of being more interesting visually on making the connection of the big themes, the big concepts (and the small concepts) behind the reason why you are doing that particular commission, that will connect to your target audience. So, that is what this [video] is going to be focusing on.
Those problematic terms that I have mentioned, that Peirce has in his theory, which was written in the late 19th century/early 20th century, the word OBJECT is not a problem but, as a designer-centric term I have been replacing the word OBJECT for concept. So, what we want to try and communicate - the OBJECT - from our perspective, within our little bubble of visual communication design - concept.
Peirce uses the term REPRESENTAMEN that over the period of time he developed his theory, REPRESENTAMEN can also refer directly to the [semiotic] sign in general, but also as part of the actual Determination Flow. REPRESENTAMEN is his terminology. You will not find that word in any other context, other than a Peircean context. He created that word himself, which is problematic in its own right, when you start creating words that no one else understands. But he did it in such a way that it could only mean what he meant it to mean.
That is problematic as far as us, as visual communication designers, are concerned. Because if you have never seen that word before it will not mean anything to you. So, let us replace that with how the concept is represented through the way we as visual communication designers, graphic designers or illustrators, shape the concept to be communicated. Through the visual communication we decide upon, on the media we decide upon.
Then that leads us to the audience. Where Peirce uses the term INTERPRETANT - about how the image from the representation - enters the head of our audience, that should connect back to the concept that we started from.
So they make that connection, just, you know, straight away, without actually having to really sit down and write treatises about “Ooh, does this mean this? or Does this mean that?” They get IT. And that is part of the craft of the visual communicator. [Peirce] uses the term INTERPRETANT but we will be using the more broader concept of how the representation is interpreted by our target audience.
Okay? [Peirce] uses one word where I have used many but that is basically the gist of how we can use Peircean semiotic theory, within visual communication design, effectively, to enhance our visual communication skills.
Let us simplify that down again. We have the concept to be visually communicated. How the concept is represented, that is from us, from us being visual communication designers, illustrators, graphic designers. But it brings in, through the triad, how that representation is going to be interpreted by our target audience, who we are designing for. We are not designing for the client, are we?
We are designing for our client’s target audience. And effectively, we want to get across the INTENTION of the brief that our client has given us. They have given us a design problem. We, through our graphic design and illustration, are finding ways to make connections to our target audience, to effectively close that gap back to our clients, so that a behavioural change happens within our target audience.
That they see what we have designed, what we have illustrated, and make that connection …and they change themselves, and go “Ah, this, now means that.“ They make that connection themselves back to the concept. That is effective visual communication and that is how semiotic theory, Peircean semiotic theory - Semiosis - helps us do that. So, these two elements are really important.
The concept that comes from the client. What needs to be visually communicated? And then us as the visual communication designers, graphic designers, illustrators; how we decide to represent, through what we design and what we illustrate, that concept. Because how we do that has to connect to our audience.
If the audience do not understand what it is we are trying to do, visually, to help them help themselves in understanding, that, you know, take on board what we have designed; then we have lost the audience straight away. We have got to understand who our audience is, and how to visually. communicate to them.
This part of the triad of the Determination Flow is where we enhance our visual communication, to effectively do that. In my argument, Peircean semiotic theory, will help us do that, because ultimately, we want our target audience to understand what they are seeing - connotatively.
Okay? So, it is not denoting exactly “this means this” This IS this. We are showing [the audience] other ways, through thematic approaches to the visual communication, and all kinds of other tricks and techniques we use to get the idea across to our audience. So, it is not the “hard sell” to the audience. The audience are enjoying what they see, what they are experiencing, from what we have designed, to then go “Ah, okay, THIS is all about THAT.” Essentially underpinning what branding tries to do as well.
So, all of these things are integral to what we do in Designerland, but it is underpinned in what the academics have in Theoryland and our chosen academic is Peirce, Charles Sanders Peirce.
So, that is our ten minutes of Peircean Semiosis 101 for this week. By expanding on last week's video explainer of HOW Semiosis works, this week we explored in more detail the semiotic Determination Flow from the concept, through its representation to its interpretation. In applying Peirce's sign-action to the ideation phase of creative practice, we can see two important things to take note of:
A) The semiotic process begins with the client's brief's needs and the conceptual message to the intended audience. The designer or illustrator constructs a creative outcome that visually represents that message. By understanding the audience visual communicators can craft the representation to connect directly with the intended audience using visual cultural and social cues.
B) The process I've just described is at a macro level of designing or illustrating.
Semiosis also happens at the micro-decision-making level of designing or illustrating. Before we begin to unpack HOW that semiotically happens in future videos, next week I will bring in a complimentary theory that works WITH Semiosis to enhance HOW we can improve our visual communication - GESTALT.
Watch the free video on YouTube for the full impact…