A sign outside a park in Prague, snapped some years ago. I was reassured to know that no handguns were allowed. I was a bit confused by the one, top-left. Don’t step on grates, perhaps?
Signs and icons are everywhere. They pervade our lives. They existed even before writing began as a means of expression. Figurative and non-figurative images have always been used in pictorial systems of communication.
Icons. 3D and 2D landmark building icons designed and produced by City ID for wayfinding maps. Familiar male and female toilet icons, followed to the right by alternative versions designed by students of acclaimed designer, David Carson. Funny, and non-ambiguous!
Today, we have become sophisticated readers of signs and signals. We decode with ease, but how have we come to understand the meaning imbued in the sign or icon?
The answer is in semiotics, the science of signs. I will not get in to any real detail on this subject here as there are numerous resources on the web for you to do that. Unlike a lot of qualitative research, semiotics takes the outside – in
approach; the conventional marketing and research approach is inside – out
. As such, semiotics asks how perceptions, attitudes and beliefs get in to peoples’ heads in the first place — not trying to extract it out of people’s heads. People are affected by culture and their surroundings.
There are three main areas which form what we understand as semiotics:
- Semantics—the relationship of signs to what they stand for;
- Syntactics (or syntax)—the formal or structural relations between signs; and
- Pragmatics—the relation of signs to their interpreters.
However, the concept of the sign is based upon the user’s cultural experience of the sign. This varies within society and between societies, both locally and globally. This is why semiotics is useful with its outside-in
approach. It constantly examines the shifting sands of cultural perceptions and applies that to communication strategies rather than relying on the more restricted and blinkered inside-out
approach.
Signs themselves can also be categorised by mode:
- symbol(ic)—the signifier is not representative of the signified and must be learnt, e.g., punctuation marks, flags and traffic lights;
- Icon(ic)—the signifier resembles or imitates the signified, e.g., cartoon, portrait, metaphor or gesture; and
- Index(ical)—the signifier is directly connected, either physically of causally, to the signified, e.g., a footprint, a phone ring, odour or a personal signature.
Understanding the way in which you can mix and match signs in your communications to deliver different meanings is core to successful design. It also helps you make more informed decisions about how best to communicate with your intended audience. That communication will in turn have a direct effect on that user’s language or culture — either reinforcing a conventionally accepted meaning, or pushing it in a new direction.
There are many examples around us. Look at them, understand them, even laugh at some.
