Semiotics
Semiotics is the understanding of signs and symbols. In semiotics, a sign is something which can stand for something else other than standing for it’s actual meaning. So, words can be signs, drawings can be signs and so forth.
An example of a type of sign that we have looked at in today’s lesson:
There are three types of semiotics; they are called an icon, an index and a symbol.
An Icon
An Icon is a physical resemblance to the signified of the object/thing that is being represented. A photograph is a good example. Also, in public toilets on the outside of the door their is a female and male icon which represents that the toilet belongs to that gender or unisex.
An Index
An index shows evidence of what is being represented. For example if you see an image of smoke on a sign then that indicates fire as smoke can not be caused if there is no fire. You can see this sign on a fire extinguisher. Though, index signs are often used on the road for example if there are deers ahead they will have a sign of a deer.
A Symbol
A symbol has no resemblance of the signifier or signified. An example of a symbol is the alphabet and numbers. In the number 9 there is nothing essential to indicate what it represents other than the number itself, therefore a symbol needs to be culturally learnt.
Different regions use symbols and different symbols mean different things like the peace sign is a symbol for peace.
Signified and Signifier
The difference between the signified and signifier is that the signifier is a form of sign this could include a sound, a word, a photograph, a facial expression a painting of a tree etc. where as a signified is a concept or object that’s represented this might be an actual pipe (not a painting), the command to stop and so forth.
The picture above is what we mean by signifier and signified.
Finally, semiotics are important in creative media because it makes us understand how signs communicate ideas, attitudes and believes to us. In the context of television, newspapers and other forms of media, semiology explains the way in which images are used to represent and pass on information to the audience.
My semiotics that I drew:
As you can see on the picture above I drew semiotics related to 6 chosen things such as nuclear power plant, Elephant sanctuary, pedestrian crossing, dangerous river, para trooping landing and fortune teller. The aim of my game was to draw symbols/signs for the ones I have chosen and it was to show other peers where my ideas where coming from.
You can see from the picture above that the peer I gave my signs to understood where my ideas where coming from because he guessed them all correctly this tells me that my photos linked directly to the words I chose to design symbols for.
In my opinion though, I think I could’ve come up with better ideas other than the first thing that came to my head when I saw them words.
Brand Awareness
Introduction – Task 1
Brand awareness is a way of how a company campaigns their logos and company to get people to recognize that a certain product belongs to them. It is simply how aware your consumers/customers are with your products.
Brand awareness is related to target audience because it is important to know where and who you are advertising for. What I mean by this is that you wouldn’t necessarily advertise something that is for teenagers on a poster, you would more likely to advertise it on social media such as Instagram like you may see many clothing brands advertised on Instagram (Primark for example). The good thing with the advertisements on Instagram is that they give you opportunities on which interests you more.
As Graphic Designers you can use Brand Awareness to increase the target audience by using the following methods: Posters, Banners (shown on public transport), Social media banners, Photographs or images shared online, Uniform (company identified by clothing), website, Social Media Pages like Instagram and finally you can use billboards, which can also be known as advertising boards.
Examples of Brand awareness:
Social Media Pages
Social media pages advertise products such as clothing brands and games. On youtube, vlogers include adverts in their videos because a wide range of ages watch their videos. They will know that including ads in their videos will benefit the company that is advertised in the video because people will become more aware of their product.
The picture above is an example of an advert you might find on Instagram, though, the most popular adverts that you can find on Instagram are ones advertising games. Lets say if it’s a new game, advertising their game on social media will give that company great success but also it will give them a better understanding of their target audience for example if it’s a game for children the age of 7 and no one has downloaded it then they know for next time to use a different advertising method of a game for that age.
Posters
You can see posters everywhere advertising many different things such as posters for a new musical thats showing or where clothes have a discount on a certain day. Posters can be displayed around your school/workplace, on shop windows, hospitals or even bus stops. The common posters that you see around your school/workplace nowadays are ones about mental health.
The picture above is a poster displayed on a bus stop. It is advertising a film that is on at the cinema.
I think that posters are generally very eye catching because they use bright colors and bold text/titles. For this reason posters are probably one of the best ways to advertise something but you still have to think about your target audience because not everybody will be interested in a poster.
Billboards
Billboards are quite similar to posters except they are shown on motorways, highways and you might see them on the giant buildings in America (often New York) and London. Billboards have a great advance for the companies that they are advertising because when you are waiting still in traffic on a motorway they are moving at quite a regular pace so you can see multiple different products on their.
Above are a few images showing examples of where billboards can be displayed.
Billboards advertise things like car brands, Phone brands, food companies such as McDonald’s, sales and many more.
Uniform
Many companies have their own uniform so other people can identify them just by looking at their clothes.
Using clothing as part of brand awareness is very unique as companies use colors that are in the logo on their design. The picture shown above is a good example of this because not only do they use their title on the clothes they also use their colors so you recognize them as ‘Subway’ and what is good about the subway clothing is the fact they use green as the overall color. This is unique because on the sign outside the takeaway restaurant it is mainly green with the title.
If you look at the t-shirt then the sign you can see that the t-shirt is a replica of the sign.
MacDonalds, Tesco, Vue cinema and many more use uniform so people can identify their company. They use colors on the design from the logo like Tesco uses the blues and MacDonald uses the yellow and so forth. This makes you recognize who it belongs to straight away.
Social Media Banners
Social media banners are used to advertise clothes, makeup, schools/colleges and many more. You can see banners other than on social media, on railings for example.
Social media banners are good to advertise things like make up and schools because a lot of teenagers and young adults use social media.
The picture above is an example of a banner I found on Facebook. This banner is advertising a playlist, which is on Spotify, for dogs. Some people will find banners like these really helpful because when they next go out they will play this to keep their dogs calm. Generally, Social media banners are really helpful for example, you really would like to attend a college open day but you don’t know when it is an advert will popup on your media page. (this happened to me quite a bit when it was nearing to the open days).
Banners are really good aswell because they are very eye-catching like posters are, when your scrolling through your media page they always catch your eye.
Decision making for what I would like to create to advertise and raise awareness for my company.
To help advertise and raise awareness for my company I would like to create a banner. You can see banners on public transport like buses, roundabouts, social media and even planes.
As part of my research to get to the decision making I researched how brand awareness can be displayed in different ways either using social media, billboards and the one that I have chosen, banners.
A few examples of banners:
The picture above is an example of a banner on a plane. Banners on planes can be used for advertising birthdays, events in your local town, or if there and offer and so forth. These kind of banners are really eye catching because you automatically look up in the sky to see what the moving object is. I would say the target audience for these banners are really for anybody especially if it is an even but if it is advertising someones birthday or a proposal then it is specifically aimed towards that person. However, plane banners are quite expensive.
Another way of using banners is on roundabouts. Banners on roundabouts kind of advertise the same things as plane banners but instead of proposals and birthdays they tend to advertise local nurseries. These kind of banners are targeted towards anyone but mainly adults because they are the ones who are able to drive.
The final example of banners are ones inside pens. On these you may see advertisements for colleges, charities or helplines and so forth. Pen banners are good especially for college advertisements because if someone loses and someone else picks it up that person might not have known about the college therefore will make them aware and interested. I would say that these kind of banners are targeted towards anyone because of the types of things they will be branding.
Although, I am choosing to create a banner for a bus because you can see many family/comedy film companies advertised on buses.
This is an example of the Lego movie advertised on a bus.
I have also thought about how other companies advertise their products such as Media, Fashion and Design. A media company I have looked into how they advertise their products is Disney because the majority of their films are family friendly themed.
Many different types of companies have different ways of advertising. One of them being banners (which is how I would like to make awareness of my company).
Media companies, lets say Disney for example, use banners to advertise a film that is recently out in the cinema or jewelry and clothes shops. Sometimes you might see social media banners advertising jobs at the Disney store or Disney land itself.
A few examples of how Disney advertise using banners:
Fashion companies mainly advertise products on social media because their target audience is basically everyone but it depends on which company your looking at for example Nike is typically aged for teenagers and young adults who like to wear their clothes or do sports and M&S is mainly targeted towards the older generation.
Here are a few examples of fashion companies :
Here are examples of advertising banners that some fashion companies use:
Over the years company advertising campaigns have changed from being in newspapers and magazines to new technology such as TV adverts, radio, direct mail and Social media on mobile phones.
Things like newspapers and magazines aren’t quite effective because they are targeted towards the older generation as young people especially teenagers don’t read them, which is why now a days they are moving on to advertising their company on social media and using other technology because they get quicker responses as social media is very popular these days. So for this reason technology is more effective for the target audience as many people have it.
In conclusion for this topic I have learnt many things such as different types of semiotics and how they are used in day to day life such as road signs. Also I have learnt how you can brand your company by using things like clothes, billboards, posters and banners. I then finally chose which advertising method I like the best (which is banners) and I researched how different companies including media and fashion design have used banners to advertise their products. To complete my research I looked at the history of company advertising campaigns over the years and how they have been effective for the target audience.
Millie's Media Journal 