Terms | Communication Design
Design Terms | Elements of Design
| Gestalt
Principles
There
are two domains within the subconscious concerning perception of design
elements
Collective
Subconscious
Individuals
belonging to the same culture seem to react in a similar way when exposed to
the same design elements
Individual
Subconscious
Individuals
with personal experience and different personalities react differently to the
same design elements due to experiences he/she has had regarding that element.
Likes and dislikes fall into this category, very subjective.
Metaphor
The
term is from the Greek, metapherein, which means to transfer. A figure of
speech that provides an understanding of one thing in terms of another. (a
feather can serve as a metaphor for lightness; a daisy for freshness)
A
metaphor also points out resemblance, but does so by substitution. "A ship
moves through the ocean like a plow through a field" is a simile.
"The ship plows the sea" is a metaphor.
Metaphor
refers to a particular set of linguistic processes whereby aspect of one object
are carried over or transferred to another object, so that the second object is
spoken of as if it were the first. Metaphorical thinking involves attending to
likenesses, to relationships and to structural features in seeking what
Aristotle caled "similarities and dissimilarities".
Comparison
is at the heart of a metaphor. Metaphor is traditionally taken to be the most
fundamental form of figurative language. One cannot define anything in terms of
something else without viewing the comparison from one's own personal
perspectives. Metaphors are personal expression.
Metaphor:
Allstate Insurance - protection and security symbol of an hands.
Related
Metaphors (comparisons in various forms)
Simile
A figure of speech likening one
thing to another by the use of LIKE, AS or AS IF.
Comparison or parallel between 2
unlike things.
o
Life is LIKE a box of chocolates
o
The grade
on the term paper was LIKE a slap in the face
o
His heart
is AS cold as
ice
Synecdoche (syn ec do cke)
A
figure of speech in which a part of something is used to designate or symbolize
the whole or just the opposite, in which the whole is used to designate a part.
o
Check out
my new wheels
o
Ten hands for ten men
o
An
intelligent student is called a brain
o
Hopi
indians use to call Navajos foreheads
o
Chanel ad
- lips suggest face
Conversely, the whole may stand for
a part
·
The law
for a police officer
Personification
Ascribing
human qualities to other species, inanimate objects and ideas. Often a way of
dramatizing a relationship that might otherwise be difficult to describe.
·
The
thatched roof seemed to be asleep.
·
Alice in
Wonderland characters. Wizard of Oz
Homonym
Words
that sound similar or the same, but that have different meanings (may have the
same spelling). Puns result from homonyms. Puns are aural metaphors and play
upon similar sounds or spellings.
o
Why did
the lobster turn red? Because he saw the salad dressing.
o
What do
you get when you cross a cantaloupe with a dog? A melon collie
Ambiguity
Having several meanings, not clear,
vague or confusing
Malapropism
An
inappropriately used word, often chosen on the basis of a sound similarity to
the appropriate one.
·
Sir
Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100-foot clipper. (circumscribe)
Synesthesia
Sensory
crossover. A phenomenon in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation
of another.
Information
received through one sensory channel can trigger another sensory channel. An ad
can stimulate other senses through the "eyes" of the viewer. An
effective ad for food for example might make one drool.
A person may be so moved, while
listening to music that he or she sees colors.
·
I saw the
pain in her eyes.
·
I felt his
gaze upon me.
·
A loud
perfume
Oxymoron
Contradiction in terms
o
the sounds
of silence
o
big shrimp
o
the lonely
crowd
o
black
light
Analogy
Although
a strict distinction between metaphors and analogies is not always made,
analogy is often considered as more of a logical than imaginative device.
Analogy is frequently used in
science to illustrate structural similarity.
o
Leonardo
da Vinci designed the prototype for an airplane after observing the flight of
birds
o
Studying
the membrane of the ear, Alexander Bell was able to design a similar membrane
for the telephone.
Antithesis
Sharp contrast between 2 opposing
ideas or thoughts to intensify their difference.
o
“The
revolution brought slavery”
o
“The
revolution promised freedom but brought slavery.”
Rebus
A riddle depicted by the pictures or
symbols that suggest its word equivalent
· Picture of a pen touching someone’s
knee = knee
Semiotics
The
study of signs. Teaches us how to read or interpret signs. A theory of how
meaning is created through signs in our lives, is both a strategy for looking,
as well as a model for expressing meaning.
Semiology
The systematic study of signs
Semiosis
The process by which a sign is given
meaning.
Sign
A sign is something that stands for
or represents something else.
(sign is used as an umbrella term)
Denotation
The literal, explicit interpretation
of a sign
(an apple is an apple)
Connotation
The
connotative message would be quite different and would deal with the cultural
baggage the apple carries, what effects it may be having and so on. Beyond the
literal denotative meaning
(an apple can suggest temptation and
desire)
Manifest
Obvious and intended message.
Latent
Refers
to the hidden meaning of something, one which is not perceived or conscious of,
which is generally unrecognized.
Symbol
A representation of an object or
concept based on an agreed upon convention.
Something with cultural
significance.
Signal
A kind of sign which is used to
generate a response of some kind.
In
this sense, the stop sign at the end of an exit off the highway might more
properly be called a stop signal. What is important is that there is an
understanding among all
Signs
In semiotics, (the investigation of
apprehension, prediction and meaning; how it is that we apprehend the world,
make predictions, and develop meaning) a sign
is generally defined as "something that stands for something else, to
someone in some capacity" (Marcel Danesi and Paul Perron, "Analyzing
Cultures"). It may be understood as a discrete unit of meaning. Signs are
not limited to words but also include images, gestures, scents, tastes,
textures, sounds - essentially all of the ways in which information can be
processed and communicated by any sentient, reasoning mind.
Signs are
elements that can be related together logically in a variety of different ways.
Within semiotics there are two general schools of thought on the nature of sign
relationships: those that believe signs are reducible to dyadic logic, and
those that believe that signs require triadic relationships.
Dyadic Signs –
Ferdinand
de Saussure famously defined a sign: "the linguistic sign unites not a
thing and a name, but a concept and a sound-image. The latter is not the
material of sound, the impression that it makes on our senses: the sound-image
is sensory, and if I happen to call it 'material,' it is only in that sense,
and by way of opposing it to other terms of the assocation, the concept, which is generally more
abstract." (1922: 98; English trans. 1959:66) "I call the combination
of a concept and a sound-image a sign.”
Signs
are composed of two elements:
1.
A sound
image (such as a word or a visual representation)
2.
Concept for
which the sound-image stands
(sign = sound image + concept)
Signifier
The signifier is the sound-image
part of the sign
Signified
The signified is the concept part of
the sign. A sign is both a signifier and signified.
Signifier Signified
(sound-image) (concept)
long
hair hippy
tattoo individualist
bow tie professor/nerd
string tie hick/cowboy
back pack student
Triadic Signs –
Charles
Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) An
American philosopher who founded contemporary semiotics, a contemporary of Saussure, proposed a different theory of
signs. Signs establish meaning by means of relating other signs together.
He identified three distinct
parts to a sign:
▪ object - the concept that the sign
encodes
▪ representamen - the perceivable part of
the sign
▪ interpretant - the meaning one obtains
from the sign
Sign = unity between object +
representamen + interpretant
Object
Representamen Interpretant
Object
Representamen Interpretant
Peirce's
triadic notion of signs requires that relationships between one sign and
another have to be mediated by a third sign. In this view, the mediating sign
is the only way to express the nature of the relationship between the signs.
Excluding this third sign limits the possible relational expression to simple
co-occurrence or similarity.
No sign as Sign
No
sign is also a sign. Since we are sign-giving and sign-interpreting animals and
since for much of our lives we are involved with this kind of activity, no
signs or absent signs also communicate something to us.
We
feel that when we give a sign to someone, such as saying “hello”, we should get
an appropriate response, some form of greeting or reply. When we don’t get the
response we expect, we take it as a sign of something. It isn’t always possible
to determine what absent signs means.
Area Meaning
Phone
rings, but no caller prankster
Says
nothing wrong
number
No
reply to letter rejection,
lack of decision, letter misplaced
Optical Illusion
Optical
illusions may be described as special kinds of visual signs. Signs that confuse
and confound us by giving us information that poses as problems for us.
Optical
illusions occur because of our fixed ideas of reality. The brain is constantly
matching it’s model of reality to signals from the body’s sensors and
interpreting what must be happening.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Optical illusions
that create images by using objects that have an identity in their own right,
but which also looks like something else. From a distance it is the gestalt,
(A physical, biological, psychological, or symbolic configuration or pattern of
elements so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from a
simple summation of its parts) the image itself which dominates.
What
we learn is that relationships are crucial. In a given context, an assemblage
in which a man’s head and shoulders are being suggested, an onion is not an
onion but can also be a cheek.
Meaning
comes from the system in which the items (objects/concepts) are embedded, and
not from some kind of an identity things have on their own.
A
play with our conception of reality and sense of the order of things, creating
confusion and excitement.
Subliminal
The unconscious,
subconscious, deep mind or third brain; the portion of the brain which retains
information and operates without conscious awareness.
Perception (semiotically defined)
A process of construction and
deconstruction
We
construct what we perceive through a complex integration of what is “out there”
in the environment: and we deconstruct using what is within our memory ( our
precious stored experiences – conscious and unconscious).
A
process which includes sensation, memory and thought; and which results in
meaning ( recognition identification, understanding)