Semiotics

Semiotics  affect us in everyday life even if you don’t leave the house the amount of suggestions through images, ads, books, movies and more are indescribable. But prior to semiotics it is necessary to understand what a sign is. Some typical signs in everyday life are traffic signs, toilet signs for male and female, no smoking signs pretty much everywhere and much more. Others can be what a red heart or a couple of red roses signifies in a post card to your loved one.

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An advert in a magazine is often a photography or illustration combined with a catch phrase.  The readers first notice the denotation of the image (the obvious facts) and then subconsciously read the connotations (the hidden meanings of the image) which gets the readers minds to think of subjects not noticeable in the original image.  

As said by Cobley, Paul (2004, pg. 3) “The word  ”semiotics” comes from the greek root, seme, as in semeiotikos, an interpreter of signs. Semiotics as a discipline is simply the analysis of signs or the study of the functioning of sign systems. “  

To break down the symbolisms in an image/photography/ad/etc separate it into three messages:

A “linguistic” message              - all the words in the ad

A “coded iconic” message      - the connotations in the photograph/image

A “non-coded iconic” message                         - The denotations in the photograph

From Barthes’ 1964 essay, “The Rhetoric of the Image” and published in “Introducing Semiotics” by Cobley, Paul (2004, pg. 47).

References: 

Cobley, P (2004). Introducing Semiotics.  London: Faber and Faber Ltd. 
Image Emerson, Jim : http://thehollywoodprojects.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/semiotics.jpg