I generally try to keep technical jargon to a minimum, preferring to talk to clients where possible in Clear English. Here are some of the main semiotic terms you may encounter, with an explanation of what they mean and how they are relevant to the world of branding.
I am often asked by clients for more information on semiotics, so have selected on the basis of interest and readability some introductory texts for academics and non-academics alike.
Some of these are not strictly speaking academic texts, some are not strictly speaking ‘semiotic’. But they do illustrate well a particular way of thinking about the world.
Semiotics is quite a dry thing in theory, all signifiers and signifieds, but it’s thrilling in practice. Think Umberto Eco on Orwell’s Newspeak, Roland Barthes on detergent advertising, or Raymond Williams’ claim that ‘culture is ordinary’.
My academic and literary heroes are people who champion the truth in the face of lazy dogma, and who are not clever for the sake of it. Making complicated thoughts accessible is a real and undervalued skill.
I did my first degree, in languages, at Cambridge. I took my Masters in 2000 at UWE, Bristol, one of the country’s premier schools of Cultural Studies, rated ‘excellent’ by the most recent HEFCE assessment of teaching quality.
My dissertation, ‘Jacques Cousteau and the French Cultural Imagination’, was awarded a distinction.
