Signs, Icons and Symbols

Nowadays society is bombarded with signs, symbols, logos and other means of visual communication. This bombardment can lead to a confusion surrounding the signs and their meanings, luckily for us a study has been dedicated to signs, namely semiotics.

In order to get a better understanding of the functioning and workings of a sign, an approach has been developed called semiotics. Semiotics is defined by Celia Lury as the study of signs, or of the social production of meanings and pleasures by sign systems, or the study of how things come to have significance (Lury, 2004, p.12).

Sign

Communication is key, and a sign is a silent form of communication. It refers to the idea of an object, if not illustrates the object to a certain extent. Signs are subjective to interpretation, which can often cause some confusion among its interpretants (Lury, 2004). The sign illustrated below, refers to the idea that the door of the company, in this case the door and the physical store in itself, are open and that the customer is welcome to come in.

 

Symbol

The symbol is a sign with an arbitrary relation, for instance language. Every language has a different definition of the word flower, but when confronted with the symbol of a flower everyone understands what it is (Branston, Stafford, 2003). Symbols rely for a great deal on interpretation due to the fact that they often express a statement or constitute an argument. In HipHop culture a common use of symbols can be traced back to the infamous ‘gang signs’. These ‘gang signs’ are used as a silent expression for a gang member to show which gang he or she belongs to. One does not need to speak a certain language in order to understand the signs that are being put up.

Icon

The icon is a sign which shows the most resemblance with the object it means to communicate through. Icons rely on recognition and therefore the meaning behind the icon is often quite straight forward. A common used icon are the black puppets, resembling a man and a woman, which are used as indicators for the men’s and women’s bathrooms in public spaces.

 

Logo

Every brand has a logo, which is a sign commonly used to represent different entities such as organizations, companies, brands and even countries (Heilbrunn, 1997).  The logo is the face of the brand, which stands in a relation with the interpretant of the logo and the interpretant represents the logo as an argument. This makes a logo equal to a symbol (Lury, 2004). The Nikon logo reads ‘I Am Nikon’, allowing its consumers to identify themselves with the brand. Thereby, the use of contrasting colors ensures for a quick notice in the brand world.

 

Image 

According to Peirce, an image is not a unified whole, meaning that there is no fixed relation between the signifier and the  (Lury, 2004). The signifier is an existing concept in the real world, for instance a flower. The signified on the other hand is rather an immaterial concept, not existing in the real world, for instance an idea associated with a gesture, the thought of a flower (Branston, Stafford, 2003). Semiotics suggest that an image is rather subjugated to a continuous transformation of logical relations (Lury, 2004). For instance, the advertisement of Bacardi reads ‘Drop-Dead delicious’, the green apple is a logical relation to the story of Snow White in which she takes a bite out of an apple and falls into a coma. Obviously, Bacardi does not want its customers to drop dead, but rather suggests that the flavour of the beverage is so good that it is worth dying for.

To conclude, semiotics does not only limit itself to the theoretical explanation of signs, but also goes into depth with regards to the production of meanings, including signs that convey meanings, for instance language, and symptoms (that’s a ‘sign’ of the flu).

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