Evaluation

The way in which I think our poster meets the needs of the brief is that it shows clearly the basic meanings of semiotics. It has an easy layout of understanding the order in which semiotics is layed out. The layout is simple and we have kept the colours to a minimum so there isn't a wild amount of colour going on to scare viewers. We have all the correct amount of information about semiotics. I don't think we have failed to meet the brief with the poster, I think that we have met everything in the criteria. The strengths that I think we have with the poster is what I have said previously about the colour and simplicity of the piece. The weakness that I think we have within this poster is just maybe colour, I think the colours work really well together, but there might be certain aspects which some viewers might think there is too much purple going on. The way in which I think that this piece could be mis-read or mis-understood by the audience is the whole meaning of the piece. I think that Semiotics as a whole is a tricky and complicated subject which personally I had trouble trying to understand. So I think the audience for this poster would be an older person with interest within semiotics, or a student studying within the area. In a practical way I think that the piece could maybe be a bit more experimental with colour. The purple looks good in my opinion, but to others purple might not be as appealing. 

My timekeeping within this task I think I dealt with well, we had a limited time to do research and design so we, as a group, set up a plan of action which we all followed well. We wanted to leave enough time for deigning, tweaking and printing, as we have printed outside of Uni, at a shop. My research for this project was just one part, this was part of our plan, we all allocated sections of the research in order to keep to keep it fair and also so that we could have a discussion and have more knowledge in certain areas within the project. I drew conclusions from my research with the info graphics that the Independent had as a newspaper. I picked out ones that I thought would relate to us and we could work with, this helped us generate ideas. As a group we did experiment, we had around 4 different ideas which had pros and cons to each. After getting feedback on each poster we tweaked and improved each time. The part of the project that  I have enjoyed the most was working within the group. We had a trustworthy group and I think we worked really well together and ideas were generated with general chat about the project. We set enough time for this so this was an easy and enjoyable part of the task. The part of the project that I didn't enjoy as much was trying to understand semiotics. In the end I think I grasped the idea of it, but I think that doing two project at the same time confused me. The times in which I worked best was the designing part of the task, again this was due to working within the group, bouncing ideas off of each other was a good way of coming up with ideas and being able to combine them. 

Working in the group:  We worked really well together and I think we were able to rely on each other to be in every day and come up with the work, seeing other groups struggle with this kind of commitment made us more keen to work closely as a team and I do think that we did that really well. We didn't have any disagreements, but we just talked things over if we thought there was a better way of doing things. I think that everyone in my group contributed a good amount of work.

Final design

Our next step is to get this printed to A1 size. We are going to go to Staples to get this done and split the cost between us all. 

Poster 4 Development - By Tom Knapp

The design below displays a printed version of how we planned to layout our poster elements on landscape.

The same elements have been carried over from the previous design with minimal changes. The idea here was to see if we could better utilise the space provided and link elements together in a way that could be better understood. After getting the desired layout, the design was shown to Sancha in order to get feedback. The design got her approval, although she suggested that we incorporated such features as 'brackets' in order to make the diagram feature more understandable.

Below are some screenshots showing the poster in its construction stages with accompanying notes:

• We chose to keep the same colour scheme as the previous posters as we believed they work well in poster format and effectively display the elements on the page.
• The title has been moved into the top left corner of the page. This is due to the fact that we have aligned the history section (profiles of Saussure and Peirce) with the title. We believed such a layout would look more organised as well as provide enough space for the other page elements.
• The beginnings of the diagram are taking place also; directly linking sections of information to others. We thought this concept would improve a consumers understanding of the semiotics process.

• Now that we had the basic layout, we began to add design features that would make the diagram look more organised and aesthetically pleasing. 
• The individual elements of information have been constraint into purple boxes, which we believe makes those aspects easier to understand as well as giving it a more professional sense. The suggestion by Sancha to incorporate brackets have also been utilised effectively. 

• Here the final sections of the diaram are being constructed. This section will incorporate the majority of the image based elements. The way we set about doing this was in a table-like format, to ensure the consumer can directly relate an image with its designated category.
• The Syntagm/ Paradigm table has been re-designed in order to make it more understandable. The notes here have also been edited. Now the notes describe the fact that a Syntagm comes from a Paradigm, which is an essential component we left out in previous designs.

• The images from the previous poster have now been incorporated in the table section into the designated areas (different shades of purple have been used to achieve this).
• Now all the elements of the poster are positioned, we began to try and tidy up elements. The main area we altered was increasing the space between the text elements and the edge of their borders, achieving a better overall finish.

• Finally, we looked over the final design, doing are own proof reading and other things until we were satisfied with the final design. It is ready for printing and to looked over by the tutors before more alterations or approval are given.

Alternative Poster Designs- Tom Knapp

Below are two posters I created that could act as alternative designs if our chosen design does not satisfy our groups demands. I chose to create two very different themed designs; one old and one modern, in order to obtain an impression as to how the desired information can be displayed.

Concept One

The Design:

This first design was inspired by 19th Century typography posters. I chose this theme of design as our poster requires a lot of text based elements that need to be displayed. Such posters designed in this fashion are dominated by text, which is why I thought the concept could be a possible solution. The individual elements of text are sectioned in order for certain information to be separate from others to reduce confusion.

Thoughts:

I chose to use the worn paper as a background to directly relate to the style of poster used in the 19th Century. The way I have set out the page elements break up the desired categories in a way that I believe works. The typefaces I have used also directly relate to those used at that period f time. The issue with this design is the fact that I had to use actual photographs for examples, which does not best suit the overall theme of the poster. Another issue I have is the amount of space that is left. By looking at 19th Century typography posters, you can see that there is minimal space. The issue that lies here is the legibility of the piece may be effected, which would not be beneficial.

Concept Two

The Design:

For this design, I chose to give it a modern, organised impression. I chose to design it in this fashion as I believe it presents all desired elements (both image and text) in a way that can be understood by the consumer. The individual elements have been organised into categories and have been presented effectively (linked in some cases). The use of colours directly relate to tose used on the 'Independent' logo.

Thoughts:

I feel the way I have sectioned elements into different categories and linked them in some cases works well and can be understood. By using a 'table-like' theme, I believe it displays all the desired information clearly. I personally feel that the elements of information that are linked to another is easy to understand (use of arrows and page separation). I also feel that the design of this poster allows actual photographs to be used without looking out of place. The only issue I can see that would be a problem is how the information links together. Although I understand it, others may not. In such a case, I feel alterations in the layout can be easily re-adjusted.

Poster 2 development - By Jess Moane

After having a small talk with Sancha, we decided to change our idea. We have kept certain aspects of the poster, like the colours and the theme but there were a lot of things we needed to add in order for the poster to have the correct information and enough.


Here are a few screen shots of the development of this poster:

• Instead of a chart that we were originally going to put onto the poster we have gone for a different approach. We are going to have a simpler style of the chart, we think this way it will be easier for viewers to understand the way that Syntagms and Paradigms work.

•  This is just another screen shot of how we are getting on with the design. We think that this design is working a lot better than the previous one as the information is all there and we think that we have set it up in a way that is easy to understand semiotics. 

• Here is the last step within the design. (still unfinished)

We really like this design a lot more than the orignal one, there is a few small things that we still want to improve on and change but we think that we have changed our idea for the better for the viewers to undersrtand well. The layout and set up of the piece is still along the lines of our thumbnail drawings, like the reading festival poster, we have set it out in columns, in a slightly different set up to the actual Reading fetival poster. We shall now be carrying on with the improvements and last tweeks. 

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Development part 2 - By Emily Viner

We printed out our new design and took it to the tutor to ask for some feedback.

The tutor told us that there are some areas that need improvement:

• It is not obvious in which order the information should be read.
• The layout needs more thought because at the moment the information has just been placed on the page and is just floating.
• This layout does not show that connotation and denotation are related.
• Syntagm comes from paradym and that has not been shown.
• Speech and thought bubbles can be used to help the audience to understand.
• The diagram for syntagm needs to be made clearer and neater.
• ‘The Independent’ needs to be larger and more prominent.
• Look at some infographics to see how their layout works.

We went back to the computer and started thinking about how we could fix these quite considerable  issues. I had a sketch (see below) I had done the day before so I got that out and we started to try to make it on the computer. We also looked at some infographics to help inspire us.

This sketch shows how we could guide the eye along the page. This idea would need to be landscape. The idea is that the elements fan out and are connected by lines.

Poster 1 Development - By Jess Moane

The poster here is the just at a development stage. We were all sitting around the computer and Me and Sam both did the illustrator work while we all chatted about ideas and ways to improve and change the idea as we went along. I feel that so far the group have got on well together and we all contribute well and are able to get ideas and research together to help each other along in order to come up with these ideas and develop each others designs.

Here I am going to show a few screenshots of some development of this poster.

 

• We started by thinking of a way of making the poster have a more comical feel, rather than having most of it serious. (As said in Sams write up with the thumbnails) We found some moustache and beards online and chose the ones we thought were most suitable for the poster and was most like the founders. 
• We have decided to use the font Helvetica Neue for this poster as we think that it's suitble for the style we have chosen for the poster. The typeface has around 7-8 different types of the font within the family, so we could use this throughout. 
• Background, Denotation and Connotation - we changed the opacity of these so they just fade into the images and text that we are putting in those sections.

• As you can see here we have added the extra grey on top of the title, this we found when we were trying to move the title over slightly and Illustrator had a shadow above the text, we all agreed that this looked good on the title and so we added the grey. 
• The text on top of the beards is also Helvetica Neue, Regular.
• We have used the eagle from The Independent news paper on our dividers, we all agreed that this would be a good idea, as this would properly link the poster to The Independent, including The Independent Logo on the top. 

• Here this is showing where we began to design the ICON, SYMBOL and INDEX section of the poster. We wanted to keep the same style going, so we made the circles purple, the same as the beards above. 
• Also, keeping in the same style as above, we have decided to made the images in the circles (which are the icons, symbols, and index) in white, inkeeping with the text written in the beards.
• The text we have used here is Helvetica Neue again, trying to keep the paragraphs to 3 lines each so that they look the same all along. 

This is a print out of the poster (unfinished) but we wanted to show Sancha to hear her thoughts of it so far and any improvements that we could do.

She wrote a few suggestions on the sheets which are:

• Needs Signified and Signifier explained
• Keep the lines thin - this will be 4x bigger
• (Icon, Symbol and Index) change a few words
• Paradigm - Stress that syntagms come from paradigms (choice)

Notes that Emily wrote as we were listening to Sancha:

• the overlapping of the text (lowered opacity - Background, Denotation ad Connotation) Sancha didn't think that it was effective and that it could be slightly confusing.
• There should be photograph examples - this will let people know what is what, the vectors that we did could also come across quite confusing. 
• There needs to be more detail and information on the poster. If you were to look at this poster and know nothing about Semiotics then the simplicity of this poster wouldn't explain enough and give you a good understanding about it. 
  

Poster Development

These are the write up and notes bout the ideas that we came up with as a group in class. We all wanted to sit together and throw ideas in because we thought this would be the fairest and easiest way to come up with an idea that we all liked and agreed on.

This are the ideas that we came up with and the notes. 

Notes written by Sam Aylard.

Drawing by Sam Aylard (all contributed by whole group)

The Independent newspaper research - By Jess Moane

For my research into The Independent newspaper, I found it sometimes difficult to find the correct content that I was looking for. So I decided to buy the paper, that way I thought that the whole group could see what it was I was thinking within a discussion. I looked through the newspaper and then showed the group a few infographics within the Independent I thought would work with ideas that we might come up with. Things like; colour and information.

• For this infographic I thought that the combination with photography and the cartoon drawing effect worked really well together. The key on the side of the piece indicates where to look for a certain piece of information.
• By looking at this first of all, my first thought was that the drawing had been done in order to make the potitics that the potiticans are talking about don't mean anything and that it is all playground talk.
• The photographs they have used are not the most flattering which added to my thoughts above.
• The colour scheme used here is quite playful and childish.

• The info-graphic in this part of the newspaper is quite straight forward - by looking at it you know that its a map.
• The colour scheme here is within 4 colours - red, blue, white and cream. Having only a certain few colours I think makes the piece more interesting, if there was more than 5 as a maximum, I think that it could end up in a mix match of colour and a it of a mess to look at.
• The use of photography again in this image instantly lets you know that the info-graphic is about politics. I think that having something that lets people know what it's about straight away is important. 

• This is another good example of an infographic. The weather diagram is telling people information most would like to know. 
• The colour scheme here is quite expected, people would automatically know the colours mean weather, or if anything something to do with the world.

• This info-graphic seems quite different to the others, there isn't much going on image wise, becuse there seems to be quite a lot of information to be given for this particular article.
• The photography used here is quite an important feature, the viewers wouldn't instantly know what the pieces of writing were about unless the images where there, this I think links quite well to index.

• What stood out to me most in this was the colours. It might not be as bright, but looking at this piece from the real paper, the background of this diagram is a light grey. The colours of plum, grey and green work so well together and I want to talk about this as part of our poster. I think something similar would attract the correct viewers for our poster.
• The whole piece is quite simplistic, the small amount of writing at the bottom explaining what is going on in the pie chart, really works well, as the chart is made from block colours.

As a conclusion, I think that mainly, we need to talk about the colour schemes that The Independent newspaper has. Each section of the paper has a different block of colours they seem to stick by which I think is quite an important part of the design. I do also think that simplicity is the key for this. Although some of the info-graphics within the newspaper seem that there is quite a lot going on, the simpler the poster, the easier it will be for younger people and people who are less knowledgeable about semiotics, the poster needs to be able to show this in a simple way, easy to understand, which with the subject, might seem harder than we originally thought. 

Semiotics background - By Tom Knapp

The Creators

Semiotics is the theory of signs, and it has aroused considerable interest in a wide range of fields, including linguistics, anthropology, literary criticism, political science, and philosophy. Two of the original thinkers in semiotics were Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) and Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913). Each of these thinkers posited a basic theory of signs and their meanings.

Ferdinand de Saussure, a French linguist working in the early 1900s, was one of the first to develop a semiotic theory.  Working in the same domain and at much the same time was Charles Sanders Peirce, an American philosopher/logician, who developed models that were related to, but somewhat different from those of Saussure.

Saussure developed the idea that a language is a system of signs, where words are used to signify objects.  The language itself is an abstract system, which can exist independently from real-life objects.  It is through the spoken or written word that language systems are applied to real-life situations. Saussure argued that no actual link exists between the sign and the object; rather it is an interpretative, or arbitrary link.  Saussure also argued that words (or signs) in a language become connected into large communicative units, such as sentences and paragraphs, according to relations between the words.  The way that this is done is determined by a “sign system”, or set of grammatical rules.

According to De Saussure, a sign is made up of two elements, the signified and the signifier. The signifier is the sound or image that stands for something else:

The word “bachelor”, and the signified is the concept represented by the signifier, e.g. the concept of being an unmarried, adult male.  More of the theory will be analysed later.

Peirce’s semiotic model was similar to, but more complex than Saussure’s.  Peirce’s model also became more strongly associated with American thinking on semiology, while Saussure is more often represented in European works on the subject. The principle distinction between Peirce and Saussure is that Peirce’s model is based on theories of logic, philosophy and mathematics, rather than on linguistics alone.  A key feature of Peirce’s semiotic theory is his creation of three semiotic categories; Peirce described semiosis as a relationship between a sign, an object and an interpretant (or meaning). Since there were three categories, which were each related to each other, they could be represented in a triangular fashion.

So, concurrently, but independently of each other, Saussure and Peirce developed a line of thinking that treats languages as sign systems, which are governed by rules.  For languages such as English, the rules take the form of such an aspect as grammar.  Similarly in visual languages, such as signing for the deaf, the rules take the form of sequences of gestures/hand actions etc. each of which has specific meaning.

Saussure recognised that one role of communication is to convey meaning between minds.  Nevertheless, it does seem to me that his approach was deeply rooted in a classical analytical worldview.  Both Saussure and Peirce treated language as being made up of distinct units - words, sentences and so on