Came across the term “Semiotics” today relating to branding.
From I understand, it’s the study of how cultures understand visual signs.
Some examples are as follows:
= good
faucet = cold water
faucet = hot water
traffic light = go
For those that are curious, there’s an article about it here:
Is this a term that you’ve heard of before?
I’ve heard of it before. It’s been a while so I’m rusty but it’s basically just the study of sign and symbol communication.
They couldn’t have gotten a lower resolution (or blown up the image any larger) of the traffic light?
Very bad pic.
I found it fascinating in Japan they don’t have signs for construction sites as we have them - as such, they have a person bowing, which is a request to show respect.
Yep I heard the term before. Insofar as it applies to graphics and design, symbology and even colours are very culture-specific as evidenced by the examples from Japan. Semiotics is to a large extent the study of this effect in a particular culture, whilst being aware of the differences between cultures.
As designers, we have to be aware of this, although we don’t often think of it as semiotics.
Ian Paget’s Logo Geek podcast has a good episode on Semiotics and how it relates to logos and other graphic design.
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