When Is A Semiotic Sign A Sign?
When Is A Semiotic Sign A Sign?
Semiosis 101 Blog - 5 minute semiotic read
When is a semiotic sign a semiotic sign?
What IS a sign?
Well in Peircean terms, a semiotic sign is not a sign until it is perceived as a sign.
We are in the context of Pragmatic semiotic theory so to explain how a semiotic sign comes into being, let’s begin with Charles Sanders Peirce. Peirce says, “Nothing is a sign, until it is interpreted as a sign.” In designing semiotic visual communications, the act of…
Back-to-back in One Go…
The video features the four episodes The Elephant in the Design Studio, Semiosis for Illustrators and Designers, The Semiotic Journey and The Semiosis Box of Tricks. The omnibus The Semiosis Introduction features all new introductions to the videos to put Semiosis in the context of graphic design and illustration. On the YouTube channel, as the months go by, I’ll…
The Semiosis Box of Tricks
In this week’s fourth Semiosis 101 episode The Semiosis Box of Tricks, we focus on a metaphor to explain how Peirce’s Semiosis’ sign-action works.for Visual Communication Design (graphic design and illustration). This box metaphor was devised by Roderick Munday, and I first read it in Daniel Chandler‘s Semiotics: The Basics. It was really helpful in…
Action Signs: The Semiotic Journey (SEMIOSIS 101 Video #3)
This week, in Semiosis 101’s third episode on general Peircean semiotic theory for illustrators and designers, we will focus on revisiting Hall's Semiotic Journey in the context of Peirce's Semiosis. We will dig deeper into the key differences between Semiology and Semiosis - the two forms of semiotic theory - to better understand Peirce’s pragmatic sign-action between a concept to be visually communicated, how to semiotically represent that to ensure our audience’s interpretations are…
3 IS BETTER THAN 2: Semiosis for Designers and Illustrators (SEMIOSIS 101 Video #2)
The second video on the new Scouse-Scot Semiosis 101 YouTube channel is now live… Semiosis for Designers and Illustrators. This is second of two scene-setting videos that quickly introduces viewers to the two forms of semiotic theory. I will discuss Peirce’s Semiosis theory and Saussure’s Semiology theory’s key points and differences. The main video key explanation is only 10 minutes focusing on Signifier and Signified AND the Determination Flow…
SEMIOSIS 101 Video #1: The Elephant in the Design Studio
The first video on the new Scouse-Scot Semiosis 101 YouTube channel is now live… The Elephant in the Design Studio. This is one of the first of two scene-setting videos that quickly introduces viewers to the two forms of semiotic theory, that allows me to begin to discuss Peirce’s Semiosis theory on Semiosis 101. The main section is only 10 minutes of key explanation on the Semiotic Journey…
Princess Sazzles and the Freshfield Tiger - a bespoke picture book by Dave Wood
In 2017 I 'came out of illustration retirement' to illustrate a picture book for my niece's 21st birthday present.
Princess Sazzles is my niece's 'alter-ego' and the whole book is a picture book version of a childhood memory. When she was about 6, I convinced her that on our walk through Freshfield Wood on a Sunday afternoon, with her elder brother and myself, we were being stalked by a tiger who only eats children wearing pink.
The following Christmas, when she asked again about the Freshfield Tiger, and I revealed to her that the Freshfield Tiger had a long bushy tail, sat in trees and ate nuts. At this revelation she shouted "But, that's a squirrel!" and belted me …and so the book idea was born.
In my picture book Princess Sazzles, like any good heroine, begins with a walk into a dark forest after ignoring all the danger signs.
Taking inspiration from Tex Avery cartoons, the narrator/illustrator and the heroine end up bickering over the story as it develops, and Princess Sazzles calls out the narrator's assertions on the 'tiger' before walking out of her own story in anger at the revelation of the 'tiger'.
While the book is not for sale, Princess Sazzles illustrated gifts are now on the Scouse-Scot Redbubble Shop. Check them out.
There are ten Princess Sazzles designs to choose from, and is the first set of Princess Sazzles designed gifts.
50% of all profits from the Princess Sazzles gift sales will go to Estrella School of Dance, my niece’s dance school in West Lancashire, England (just outside Liverpool).
After all, she is Princess Sazzles ‘ -) Check out the Estrella FB page estrellaschoolofdance.
Princess Sazzles Book Walkthrough
Fulfilling Lives Graphic Novel Anthology Documentary 2017-18
In September 2017 when I was working at Northumbria University, I began a collaboration between our 2nd year illustration students and Fulfilling Lives, a Newcastle-based charitable organisation that helps vulnerable people to rebuild their lives.
Fulfilling Lives’ work includes outreach work with local social service providers to enact system change in their attitudes and policies to people who they define as ‘difficult clients.’
They challenged my illustration students to use illustration to help amplify those voices, and as part of their Contextualisation and Interpretation module, from two interviews of people with complex needs the students' illustrated their journey through life.
The students interpreted these lived experiences into five short graphic novel stories, which thanks to an ERDF Creative Fuse grant in 2018, were then published in a printed anthology to be used in future Fulfilling Lives outreach work.
There was also an eBook version, and panels from the anthology formed Twitter templates, to provoke dialogue on the stigma against people with complex needs in society using the hashtag #WhatDoYouSee?
Creative Fuse North created a short video documentary on the project, in which myself and some of the students discuss the project (see below - expand to full screen).
A paper on this project was presented in 2018 at the International Conference on Illustration and Animation (CONFIA 18) in Portugal.
This paper What Do You See? Using the Graphic Novella to Challenge Stigma co-authored with award winning children's book illustrator Sara Ogilvie, and Ray Middleton from Fulfilling Lives in Newcastle.
Another paper on this project is currently being written for submission to Graphic Communication Design Research Journal. It's abstract has already been peer reviewed and accepted.
https://vimeo.com/717146904
Video Credit: Glen Perry
Just So You Know: When Illustration Challenges Rape Culture - CONFIA 19 Presentation
In June 2019 I returned to CONFIA19 in Portugal to present another paper at the International Conference on Illustration and Animation. The paper was Just So You Know:
When Illustration Challenges Rape Culture, and focused on how my illustration students helped Rape Crisis in Newcastle to inform young people on sexual consent.
My conference panel was chaired by Prof. Alan Male, and the other panel speakers were Desdemona McCannon (Principal Editor of the Journal of Illustration), and Vincent Larkin (AUB).
The video link is my 10 minute presentation filmed at the conference.
Illustrating Semiosis - CONFIA 18 Presentation
In July 2018 I presented two papers at the International Conference on Illustration and Animation (CONFIA 18) in Espesende, Portugal.
The two papers were What Do You See? Using the Graphic Novella to Challenge Stigma, and Illustrating Semiosis: A Pragmatic Turn to Peircean Semiotic Theory for Illustrators.
The video link is my Illustrating Semiosis presentation filmed at the conference that I presented.
There doesn't appear to be a video of the What Do You See? presentation, but that paper was co-authored with award winning children's book illustrator Sara Ogilvie, and Ray Middleton from Fulfilling Lives in Newcastle.