Design: Representation and Semiotics

The phrase "what is design" has been contemplated constantly. Walking down the street, people see cars, buildings and advertisements; piece of artwork serving purposes in the daily lives. Throughout society, people are bombarded by a verity of designs captivating the users and manifesting itself within cultural space. It is a broad definition and this may be due to the existence of art, with the two forms sharing such similarities yet different quite distinctly. Designers create to capture users attention, but ‘what is design?’ When the term ‘design’ comes to mind, it could be difficult to define and is often misconstrue as a term for art, however they have two entirely different meanings.

People understand that the only difference between art and design is, art is a skilled and original work that arouses and is aesthetic, but design is explicit and is a practical purpose trying to convince people into stimulating their needs and wants. What they do not know is, design could be categorized into different parts. So how can the term design be defined to deepen their understanding? To comprehend design, people should know the concept of representation, and semiotics, and how the two together makes a clear understanding of branding as a cultural space that shapes the daily experiences.

Representation is heard often and it has many definitions. When using this in terms of design, representation is a space which reality is socially constructed. It is something being represented and it mediates what and how the users think. Social space is a process distributed among users. Since everyone is interacting in that social space, designers can gathered information and ideas to help understand important facts they need to know about par...

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From a designer’s point of view, design is “making things better for people” and focusing on human behaviour and quality of life. As a designer, the first stage is to find out what the customer wants and needs. All the design products that keep coming out stimulate the society. When it comes to design, representation mediates how users think and semiotics are a powerful tool to grab users attention. These two key concepts make a clear understanding of how representation of branding can be so powerful and can affect cultural space that shapes people’s experiences.

Works Cited

1. O’Brien, Susie; Szeman, Imre Excerpt from: Popular Culture: A User’s Guide, Second Edition, pp. 67-99.

© 2010 Nelson Education Limited.

2. Neumeier, Marty. “Excert from The Brand Gap” in The Brand Gap, pp. 1-19. © 2005 Peachpit Press.