Graphic design and the unconscience codes
Abstract
During the first year of RIT's graduate graphic design
program, the student is required to take a course titled
Visual Semiotics. This class is taught by Dr. Richard
Zakia, Prof. R. Roger Remington, and Prof. Robert
Keough. Course substance includes semiotics, explained
through definitions, visual examples, and the semiotic
construction chart devised by Dr. Richard Zakia and Prof.
R. Roger Remington, (see appendix 4)
"Semiotics, a theory of how meaning is created
through signs and symbols in our lives, is both a strategy
for looking, as well as a model for expressing meaning --
especially that which is less obvious or more deeply
represented in culture. Whether defining a product,
targeting a concept or carrying strategy to the
marketplace, success is determined by a comprehensive
understanding of culture. To a semiotician, how
something is structured (whether it be an object, language,
even something more abstract, such as an attitude or
behavior) provides clues to its fullest meaning. Likewise,
the semiotician probes to discover patterns of
organization, the codes through which we comprehend or
Dr. Zakia the rules that operate to generate meaning."
The semiotic construction charts' patterns of
organization are represented through code, paradigm,
relationship, operation, and evaluation. Listed under the
semiotic codes are linguistic rhetorical figures, perceptual,
unconscious, Gestalt, stylistic, iconic, cultural, color, body,
scientific, recognition, transmission, and aesthetic.
Through the study of these codes, I became fascinated
with the unconscious aspect and how we can define its
meaning through our cultural signs and symbols. "The
unconscious depth message of ads are never attacked by
the literate because of their incapacity to notice or discuss
nonverbal forms of arrangements and meaning. They
McLuhan, 1964 have not the art to agree with pictures."
The codes of the unconscious were defined by Dr.
Richard Zakia and Prof. R. Roger Remington Remington
as being archetypes, defense mechanisms,
id/ego/superego, Jung's four functions: thinking, sensing,
feeling, and intuiting, persona, perceptual defense,
predicate thinking, shadow, and subliminal. Due to my
personal fascination with psychology and mystic arts, I
committed myself to expanding these unconscious codes
and utilizing them in my thesis process and
application.
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