Semiotics

Semiotics, or the theory of signs, is a huge element of Graphic Design. Every say we see and take in hundreds of signs without even thinking about it, whether it is signage of a shop, road signs or signs giving us an action to do. Our brain analyses them because of the presence of signs around them, otherwise they would not make sense. For example, a sign showing a fire exit, is surrounded by signs such as 'Push' on handles and 'Fire Exit' presented on a door. There are three main types of sign, iconic, indexical and icons, each one completely different, but fitting within the same category of signage. An iconic sign is probably the most commonly seen sign. It is made up of two spereate parts, the signified and the signifier. which added together makes the sign. This 'Turn Left' road sign is a classic example of an iconic sign. The image is the signified, the text below is the signifier, one without the other would not make much sense, but when the two elements are bought together they make the sign.





An indexical sign is when there is a casual link between the sign and the object, for example a weathercock, or medical symptoms. A simple example is an 'Exit' sign, which has an arrow pointing towards the exit. Smoke billowing from a house is an index for fire inside. As human's we recognise these and place them within our time, for what they represent. However, it is important that indexical signs are used within the right context, as a lot of them could be misread and misunderstood, because when places in the wrong situatuion they could mean something all the more different. For example, a human indexical sign, a wave, means several different things, such as a greeting, a goodbye, a call for help etc. This is slightly iconic too. Another example is this selection of road signs for tourist attractions is indexical. It is easy to understand the sign for the camping sigh, and for the telephone. However, signage for the zoo (the elephant) and the sign for the vineyard (the bunch of grapes) is only representative of what they are produced for, and only have a casual relationship with their meaning.

The third sign is called the symbol. This is an arbitrary sign in which the signifier has neither direct nor an indexical relationship to the signified, but rather represents it through convention, it has no logical connection. For example, a black cross on a road map symbolises an old battlefield, a red octogan on the road represents stop. Symbols are often understood throughout the world, and are often found in a lot of other countries. The most seen symbol is most probably the male and female signage for toilets. Even though they do not have anything to do with the toilet about them, and just because we see the representative silohuettes of a male and female figure, we instantly associate them with toilets. Most big name branding companies also use symbols as their signage. For example, Apple use an icon of an apple fruit for theirs. However an apple has many connotations already, of health and temptation to name a couple, but all of a sudden when people see apple they also think of technology, which shows how influencial symbols can be.

"Semiotics is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign. A sign is everything which can be taken as significantly substituting for something else. This something else does not necessarily have to exist or to actually be somewhere at the moment in which a sign stands in for it. Thus semiotics is in priciple the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie, if something cannot be used to tell a lie, conversely it cannot be used to tell the truth; it cannot in fact be used 'to tell' at all. I think that the definition of a 'theory of the lie' should be taken as a pretty comprehensive program for a general semiotics" - Umberto Eco

Bibliography
http://hiphappy.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/turn-left-sign.jpg
http://tonypritchard.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/road-signs.jpg?w=300&h=145
http://www.vikingsigns.co.uk/images/0dwt6gfyi.jpg