SEMIO INTERPRETATI

ON OF
IMAGES AND
SYMBOLS
WHAT IS SEMIOTICS?
 It is the study of signs and
symbols.
 It looks how signs and
symbols are used to
communicate and develop
SIGNS AND SYMBOLS
SIGN
A SYMBOL WHICH IS UNDERSTOOD
TO REFER TO SOMETHING OTHER
THAN ITSELF.
SYMBOL
AN OBJECT THAT REPRESENT,
STANDS FOR OR SUGGEST AN
FAMOUS THEORISTS
OR PROPONENTS
FERDINAND DE
SAUSSURE
ROLAND BARTHES
CHARLES PIERCE
FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE

 He is a Swiss linguist who

created the term
“semiotics”
SIGNIFIER AND SIGNIFIED
 Sign is made up of:
SIGNIFIER- THE IMAGE OR
SOUND THAT GIVES MEANING
SIGNIFIED – THE CONCEPT OR
MEANING THAT THE SIGN
SIGNIFIER AND SIGNIFIED
(CONTINUED)

For a sign to be considered a

sign, it must have a signified
and a signifier.

 Saussure – words are verbal

ROLAND BARTHES
 A French literary theorist who
is also interested in semiotics.
His theory focuses on how
signs and photographs
represent different cultures and
These messages are
established in two ways
through:
DENOTATION – The literal
meaning of the sign.
CONNOTATION – The
suggested meaning and the
CHARLES PIERCE
 He was born on Sept 10, 1839
Followed a career in math,
philosophy and was a logician.
“Every thought is a sign and
every act or reasoning of the
interpretation of signs.
 CHARLES PIERCE
Signs function as mediators
between the external world of
objects and the internal world of
ideas.
Semiotics- a process of
FORMS OF SIGN
 ICON
The signifier is perceived as resembling the
signified. A pictorial representation, a
photograph, an architect’s model of a
building are all icons because they imitate or
copy aspects of their subjects.
HOW DOES
THIS
POSTER
USE VISUAL
CODES TO
COMMUNIC
ATE AND
APPEAL TO
ITS TARGET
AUDIENCE?
IDENTIF
Y
TECHNI
QUE.
ex: the
text uses
light
THE EFFECT?
ex: the text
uses light
surrounding
Bond to make
him more
angelic; as if
EFFECT ON THE
AUDIENCE?
ex: the text uses
white lights
surrounding Bond to
symbolize angel’s
wings, making him
look heroic, and
suggesting to the
white lights
surrounding Bond to
symbolize angel’s
wings, making him
look heroic, and
suggesting to the
audience that he is on
the side of good. It
could also imply
ex: the text uses white
lights surrounding Bond
to symbolize angel’s
wings, making him look
heroic, and suggesting
to the audience that he
is on the side of good. It
could also imply that he
is godly or other worldly
in that he has powers
above the average
HOW DOES THIS POSTER USE
VISUAL CODES TO
COMMUNICATE AND APPEAL
TO ITS TARGET AUDIENCE?