Title Is British Society formed through design? A semiotic analysis of Transport for London poster designs from 1912 to present.
Semiotic Analysis - Roland Barthes - The Rhetoric of the image How does the meaning get into the message? Where does it end? If it ends. What is beyond the image?
The linguistic message • Text • Denoted message. (E.g. label on a tin of tomatoes) • Connoted message (E.g. The word Panzani connotes italianicity) • Anchorage – Multiple meanings and interpretations • Relay – Image and text working together to add meaning The symbolic message • What the image could mean (A dove could mean purity) • Can connote multiple meaning • Lexicon is the body of knowledge – (How much we know depends on how much knowledge a person knows) • A single Lexia stimulates multiple Lexicons (A persons idiolect) • Could be an ideology (Systematic body of concepts) The Literal Message • (Denoted) • What is it - E.g. the icon of a tomato represents a tomato
Nudge Theory • • • •
Influences Behaviour Is all our Behaviour conscience? Nudging is a kinder, gentler way of taping the information in rather that do this, do that. Softer way of promotion
Dual Theory – Founded by William James The Automatic System • Fast • Unconscious • Many Processes happen at once • E.g. Getting out of bed in the morning
The Reflective system • Slow • Only one process happens • Consumes lots of energy • In control of what we are thinking • E.G. How much do we have towards buying a house
Case Study: Transport for London Posters
Main Questions Are posters efficient enough to create behaviours within society? Do posters construct and/or reflect society? Is society structured and shaped through poster design and how do the designs achieve this? Frank Picks (British Transport Administrator) idea, Fitness for Purpose; Pleasantness in use. Do we still use this idea when posters are commissioned today?
To get an understanding of posters from the beginning, I will first look into the purpose of a poster in general. The posters that I examine will start from 1912 (commissioned by Frank Pick) up to the present.
Chapter one – The Rhetoric of the image – Nudge Theory Chapter two
– Investigates several poster advertisements from 1912 to the present. – Transport for London Posters. – Comparisons of posters from different years
Chapter three
– Wrapping up the question that I have written in the introduction
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