Semiotics - Study of Meaning of Signs

To be smart when you are talking about Visual Communication it helps if you know some basic ideas in Semiotics. Semiotics is the study of how things mean something and the signs that make that possible. Some examples of types of signs are: symbols (that we learn as denoting the subject), icons (that resemble the subject), and indexes (that are related to the subject). A sign has parts that we can analyze and see if it is working the way we want it to. An obvious part of a sign is its visual nature. That is the part that we as Designers and Illustrators are good at making look excellent. Another part of how a sign means something is how people read it, what they think it means; this is the connotation of the sign, the final message. A third part is our intent, what we were trying to show in hopes of communicating something specific; this is the denotation. When we look at our designs from the perspective of how other people might understand them or what variety of things it could possibly mean we are better able to refine it to an effective and specific communication with all of the nuances of communication that we could hope for.