Visual semiotics: identity reflection in personal symbol creation

Safia Najwa Suhaimi

Abstract

This study reports on personal identity reflection in personal symbols created by first year design students. The personal symbols, together with descriptive texts that answer the prompt question: How does the personal symbol created reflect you as a designer? created by first year design students were used to identify the common themes relating to identity reflection and the extent of how connotative meanings are embedded in the personal symbols. Using the method of thematic analysis on the descriptive texts, 6 themes relating to personal identity reflection are identified including (1) Personal Preference, (2) Personal Names, (3) Character Personality, (4) Cultural Identity, (5) Design Style and (6) Design Philosophy. The extent of how connotative meanings are embedded in the personal symbols was analysed using Barthes’ visual semiotics analysis. It is proposed that there is a correlation of recurring themes across the two sets of findings, which is the theme (1) character personality, suggesting the significance of the theme in informing design students’ identity reflection in personal symbols. The framework and methods used including the integration of thematic analysis and visual semiotics to analyse symbol creation employed in the present study is aimed to provide new knowledge in the field of visual communication and graphic design. Furthermore, it is implied that these can be adopted by design educators to analyse various visual works of design students within the design field in the future.

References

Ahuvia, A. C. (2001). Traditional, interpretive, and reception based content analyses: Improving the ability of content analysis to address issues of pragmatic and theoretical concern. Social Indicators Research, 54(2), 139−172.

Aiello, G. (2020). Visual semiotics: key concepts and new directions. In The sage handbook of visual research methods (pp. 367-380). SAGE Publications, Inc., https://www.doi.org/10.4135/9781526417015

Al-Fedaghi, Sabah., & Thalheim, Bernhard. (2009). Databases of Personal Identifiable Information. 617 - 624.

10.1109/SITIS.2008.49.

Alhojailan, M. I. (2012). Thematic analysis: A critical review of its process and evaluation. West East Journal of Social Sciences, 1(1), 39-47.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77−101.

Buttle, H., & Westoby, N. (2006). Brand logo and name association: It's all in the name. Applied Cognitive Psychology: The Official Journal of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 20(9), 1181-1194.

Grilo, G., Lagasse, L. P., Cohen, J. E., Moran, M. B., Reynales-Shigematsu, L. M., & Smith, K. C. (2021). “It’s all About the Colors:” How do Mexico City Youth Perceive Cigarette Pack Design. International Journal of Public Health, 66, 5.

Hu, B. (2020). Exploring contemporary visualisations of traditional Chinese symbols: A case of tea branding design(Doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology).

Kunrath, K., Cash, P., & Kleinsmann, M. (2020). Social-and self-perception of designers’ professional identity.

Journal of Engineering Design, 31(2), 100-126.

MacGregor, A., Delaney, H., Amos, A., Stead, M., Eadie, D., Pearce, J., Ozakinci, G., & Haw, S. (2020). ‘It's like sludge green’: young people's perceptions of standardized tobacco packaging in the UK.

Addiction, 115(9), 1736-1744.

Osorio, M. L., Centeno, E., & Cambra-Fierro, J. (2020). A thematic exploration of human brands: literature review and agenda for future research. Journal of Product & Brand Management.

Qyll, N. (2020). Persona as key component in (cultural) person branding. Persona Studies, 6(1), 56-71.

Rangarajan, D., Gelb, B. D., & Vandaveer, A. (2017). Strategic personal branding—And how it pays off. Business Horizons, 60(5), 657-666.

Shi, Y., Li, Z., Xu, L., & Cao, N. (2021). Understanding the Design Space for Animated Narratives Applied to Illustrations. In Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-6).

Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2001). Practices of looking. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Song, S., & Park, K. (2020). Thematic analysis of destination images for social media engagement marketing. Industrial Management & Data Systems.

Watkins, C. R., Gray, C. M., Toombs, A. L., & Parsons, P. (2020). Tensions in Enacting a Design Philosophy in UX Practice. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp. 2107-2118).

Yan, S., & Ming, F. (2015). Reinterpreting some key concepts in Barthes theory. Journal of Media and Communication Studies, 7(3), 59-66.

Zhao, M. (2013). Seek it or let it come: how designers achieve inspirations. In CHI'13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2779-2784).