"Semiotics, semiotic studies, or sociology is the study of sign processes (semiosis), or signification and communication, signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. It includes the study of how meaning is constructed and understood".
Roland Barthes.
Roland Barthes is most well-known for his book "Mythologies". He was born on the 12th of November 1915 and died on the 25th March 1980. He carried out extensive research on how meaning/meanings are constructed, the 'sign process', which resulted in the book being based on connotations and codes.
When I was first introduced to "Semiotics", there was an image of a chair infront of us and we were asked "what do you see?" and the majority of us answered "a chair" (the minority of us didn't answer at all). Of course it was a trick question, because what we were actually seeing was, infact, a photograph of a chair, not the actual chair itself.
Semiotics affect a large majority of modern day;
- Advertising (the eye doesn't need all the letters of a word to read it e.g. "I konw you, are oyu okay")
- Education ("we only know what a symbol means because we were taught it in earlier life)
- (even) Safety (road signs etc)
This "I shop therefore I am" image ("I think, therefore I am = original philosophy) is by Barbara Kruger. This slogan was used to advertise one of Selfridges' Christmas sales aka Advertising.
Different colours have different meanings to different people/cultures. This makes its very difficult to do global advertisements. These advertisements are for 'The United Colours of Beneton';
"The “united” colors of its sweaters soon became a metaphor for the united skin tones of the youth from many different countries for whom the sweaters were designed. As the markets expanded—Benetton became a global force in just a few years—the United Colors concept spread from encompassing the different races to the ideas of tolerance, peace and respect for diversity."
Barthes also looked at handwriting. For example if you were asked "what type of person do you think wrote this?"
the majority of people would automatically assume that it was a lawyer or a doctor's hand, because it is so well written. But who's to say that a criminal did not write it? and why is that so shocking/unexpected. My mother is a lawyer and her hand writing is awful!
http://production.investis.com/ben_en/about/campaigns/history/
No comments:
Post a Comment