(via The Meaning of Birthdays in the Age of Social Networking – Sign Salad)
presented at Semiofest 2012
Massimo Leone, Department of Philosophy, University of Turin
1. You shall study semiotics; choosing a good university course with a good teacher; reading books, articles, essays; going back to the classics, avoiding compendiums, readers, and also most online materials: they are not good (for the moment);
2. You shall practice semiotics; initially through purposeless analysis; through interpretation for the sake of interpretation; annoy your friends with semiotics;
3. You shall befriend other semioticians; meeting them regularly not only on the web, but also in congresses, symposia, colloquia; remember to celebrate semio-festivities;
4. You shall not turn semiotics into a rhetoric; semiotics’ purpose is to help other people to understand meaning, not to convince them that you understand it better than them;
5. You shall not turn semiotics into magic; semiotics is a discipline, one should be disciplined in learning and in practicing it;
6. You shall not turn semiotics into religion; semiotics is only one out of a multitude of options; respect other disciplines and ask respect from them;
7. You shall not turn semiotics into science; let’s face it: semiotics is part of the humanities; thank god meaning will never be ruled by the laws of necessity;
8. You shall not turn semiotics into mystery; if nobody understands you but other semioticians, you are a failure;
9. You shall not turn semiotics into bar conversation; if everybody appreciates you except other semioticians, you are a failure too;
10. You shall not be worried that your mother doesn’t understand what you do; most people who do new things have skeptical mothers.
(photo from Tim Stock’s presentation on Semiotics and Framing Cultural Insights)
(Source: linkedin.com)
Pharmaceutical companies are constantly reinventing familiar over-the-counter products with fresh versions of the same formula and new Latin-sounding names. By challenging this with a ‘less is more’ philosophy, Help Remedies is heralding a new wave of ‘minimalist medicine’ that targets an empowered generation of healthcare consumers.
(continues at Canvas8 - Help Remedies and the rise of minimalist medicine
)
Semiotics can have a great influence on brands and brand development, and some of the most exciting innovations in recent years have used semiotic analysis. Semiotics can help brands in a number of ways: they make innovations that naturally fit into society, they uncover ideas and insights that do not necessarily arise from traditional market research, and they help brands create culture rather than merely respond to it. Semiotics need not be costly or time consuming. Even a few hours of semiotic consideration can inspire you and push the boundaries of thinking, helping you to think laterally and strategically. Even in today’s time-pressured society, taking just a little time out to think semiotically can help answer the one hard question your brand is facing and solve problems which may take huge amounts of time with traditional methods. Semiotic thinking really is the brand management tool of the future.
From Retro-futurism to Future-retrosim: how the reconstruction of the past from a future perspective could influence brands. (Music: Promofunk by The Soft Pink Truth, idea & presentation by Sandra Mardin)
Berlin-based visual communicator Thomas Lehner has designed this beautiful packaging for Fruchtbrände of Rezept-Destillate. The metaphor of pure elements - Ap, Ki, Kr, Qu, Zw; captures the sheer nature of the product to the point.
As artificial intelligence progresses apace logos may become ingratiating envoys for digital brands.
Scott Brinker has argued that as data becomes more semantic and meaningful ‘data branding’ or the making available of proprietary company data under creative commons protocols will be employed as a competitive advantage. This is because they will be amenable to being useful mash-ups.
In this scenario it is possible to imagine the logo as pulsating with bits of data pulled from the data cloud and morphing as the data stream oscillates.
The aim of both this collection and future collections is to effectively make a departure from the notion of a ‘Brand’ or ‘Label’ and to design and develop clothing that looks and feels as if it had been designed by a friend or found somewhere. Design pieces that feel as if they have always been around.
(via VIER5 FASHION DEPARTMENT)
vs.
Advertising has brought knitting to the masses, with everyone from Vodafone to Toyota, Nintendo and the Scottish government using the activity in 2010 and 2011 marketing campaigns. (via guardian)
(Source: youtube.com)
I’ve noticed that pouring yoghurt goes unnoticed in the UK. Not only that, many can’t grasp the idea of just having plain yoghurt on its own without thinking how boring. Danone have tried to advertise it as a new breakfast experience “add pouring yoghurt to your cereal”. However, in Macedonia where we normally have pouring yoghurt a lot I’ve never seen anyone having it with cereal. The whole point is to drink it, not eat it. So, how would you introduce plain drinking yoghurt without it seeming boring?
I was exploring some emerging codes for purity and tried to apply them to yoghurt branding, so this was the result. Pure (pouring rain, natural, white, cow patterns) + Yoghurt in a bottle (drink). I appreciate any feedback!
