5 slides

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

Bibliography Barthes, Roland. (1977) Image Music Text. London: Fontana Press Barthes, Roland. (1988) The Semiotic Challenge. Los Angeles: University of California Press Barthes, Roland. (1993) Mythologies. (Vintage) London: Vintage 2000 Bignell, Jonathan. (2002) Media Semiotics An Introduction. (Second Edition) Manchester: Manchester University Press Bownes, David and Green, Oliver. (2008) London Transport Posters. A Century of Art and Design. Aldershot: Lund Humphries Cobley, Paul. (1963) Introducing Semiotics. Royston: Icon Books Ltd Davis, Meredith. (2012) Graphic Design Theory. (Graphic Design in Context) London: Thames and Hudson Ltd Games, Naomi. (2008) Poster Journeys. Abram Games and London Transport. Harrow: Capital Transport Publishing Green, Oliver. (1990) Underground Art. London: Cassell Publishers Ltd Green, Oliver. (2013) Frank Pick’s London. Art Design and the Modern City. London: V&A Publications Green, Oliver. (2013) Frank Pick London. London: [Lecture Talk at the Cubic Theatre, 4th November, 2013.]

Hall, Sean. (2007) This Means This, This Means That A User’s Guide to Semiotics. London: Lawrence King Publishing Ltd Jon, Peter. (2009) Nudge Nudge, Think Think. Experimenting with ways to Change Civic Behaviour Huntington: Bloomsbury Publishing Laver, James. (1949) Art For All. London: Art and Technics Ltd Levey, Michael F. (1976) London Transport Posters. Oxford: Phaidon Press Ltd London Transport Museum. (2013) Poster Art 150 Years. London Underground Greatest Designs. London: Transport Museum.

Thompson, Jon. (1996) Towards a theory of the image. Netherlands: Jan Van Eyck Akademie