A metaphor is a direct comparison between two unlike things—a literal concept and a figurative concept.

The qualities of the figurative concept are assigned to the literal concept.

In the following examples, the figurative qualities of an elephant are assigned to a person, Harry, who is the literal concept.

Metaphors work in one direction with a corresponding meaning, but with an opposite meaning if the concepts are reversed.

Some metaphors are visual and do not rely on textual or verbal information to carry its meaning.

Visual metaphors are used extensively in art and other forms of visual communication.

In 1919, Marcel Duchamp scribbled a moustache and a beard on a print of the Mona Lisa as an artistic statement (next slide). To him, the Mona Lisa represented the art establishment. The DaVinci painting has been admired for centuries as a masterpiece—a work of incredible beauty—and perhaps the most recognizable and representative icon of all of man’s artistic expressions.

But Duchamp had his own ideas about what is art and what is beautiful. The scribbled facial hair represented his defiance against the art establishment. Below the print, he wrote the letters L.H.O.O.Q., which became the title of the work. When spoken, the letters sound like the phrase, “She has a hot tush” in French.

His contemptuous feelings could never be expressed as clearly and as tangibly as they were by the use of this metaphor.

The following visual metaphors are from the field of advertising.

Usually the last thing a person notices about someone else is their shoes.This metaphor is saying Clerget Shoes are as attention-getting as any tie.

In this ad directed at corn farmers, the wine glass implies the prestigious and luxurious qualities of Asgrow Corn, like a fine wine.

Rather than just any old beer, Grolsch Pilsner is granted an air of luxury by its placement in a champagne chiller bucket.

Just as true today as in the ’60s, gas prices are high. This poor guy contemplating suicide with a gas nozzle has one alternative, “Or you could buy a Volkswagen.”

The message here is clear and simple: Dunlop Tires are life preservers.

What happens when our natural resources run out? In this public service announcement, the planet Earth is equated to a wax candle. When it burns out, what will be left?

This Sony earphones ad equates their competitor’s earphones to a couple of heavy bricks.

Just as the Great Wall of China is an internationally-recognized symbol and a source of national pride in China, …

Dommelsch beer is an internationally-recognized symbol and a source of national pride in the Netherlands.

Mobil 1 Oil. Intensive care for your car, as represented by hanging a bottle of motor oil upside down to suggest an IV bottle.

During the ’80s, the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan was as unpopular in Russia as was the Vietnam war here in the U.S.

Time Magazine metaphorically represented the U.S.S.R. as a bear paw stuck in a trap, which is located on a map of Afghanistan.

One has to know a little about geography in order to understand this visual metaphor: the crack in the exploding barrel is in the shape of the Persian Gulf, bordered by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the U.A.E. to the south and Iran to the north.

Since visual metaphors are so symbolic, the audience must be able to understand the symbols that the visual artist is using, otherwise the metaphor will be ineffective.

Your professor, once tried using this visual metaphor in a lecture to represent trouble in Latin America. He was informed that dominoes are popular in many other places, such as Jamaica and other Caribbean islands, and that many people did not agree with his symbolism.

Be sure your audience can understand your visual metaphors before you use them in a project.

Continental Tires are the real LifeSavers.

This amazing visual metaphor for tennis in France compares a racket to the shape of the Eiffel Tower.

This company’s longevity is represented by a cross-section of a tree trunk, where each ring represents one year.

AIGA—The American Institute of Graphic Arts—staged a graphic design competition with very short notice and a tight deadline, which means entrants had to scramble and run around like chickens with their heads cut off to meet the deadline.

This next series of images was used by the Reagan Billboard Advertising Company to promote billboards that are unsold. Their creative technique says expresses the attention-getting power of billboard advertising.

Semiotics

• Semiotics is the study of meaning in signs.• Gillian Rose advocates semiotics in her book

Visual Methodologies. But some critics debate its relevancy to the graphic communications industry.

Signs

• Everything is made up of signs.• Signs are always made up of two parts—the

signified (a concept or object) and the signifier (a visual or aural symbol attached to the signified).

• a “very young human who is not yet able to walk or talk” is the concept (the signified), which is attached to the written symbols “baby” or the sounds we make when saying those symbols, or an image of a baby (the signifier).

• Other signifiers can be attached to the same signified; for example, “newborn,” “toddler” or “infant.”

Semiotics Terminology

• Charles Sanders Pierce suggests that there are three different kinds of signs based on how the relationship between the signified and signifier are understood:

1. Gillian Rose. Visual Methodologies. London: Sage Publications, 2001, p. 78.

Icon.

• The signifier represents the signified in a direct way. For example, a photograph of a baby is an iconic sign for a baby.

Index• The signifier and

signified are related because of an association made between the two of them.

• In this instance, a man labeled “strong, dependable, irresistible” forms an association in the viewer’s mind that Silver Cross baby buggies are likewise strong, dependable and irresistible.

Symbol• A conventionalized, but

arbitrary relationship between the signifier and the signified.

• The baby in this poster is symbolic.

• The sleeping baby represents “hope for the future.”

• The raised fist is a symbol of the communist revolution.

• The Italian text is a pun that reads, “The revolution never rests,” or “Not the Russian revolution.”

Criticisms against semiotics:

• Jorge Frascara believes semiotics does nothing more than add an appearance of sophistication to an uninteresting subject.1

• Leiss, Kline and Jhally remark that obscure terminology used to describe semiotics does “little more than state the obvious in a complex and often pretentious manner.”2

• A study of semiotics is not as helpful to the graphic designer as is life experience and a broad understanding of many subjects. In my opinion, much of the terminology of semiotics is likely already understood by graphic communicators on a subconscious level.

1. Jorge Frascara. User-Centered Graphic Design: Mass Communications and Social Change. London: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 1997, p. 37.

2. Gillian Rose. Visual Methodologies. London: Sage Publications, 2001, p. 98.

Semiotics Case Study.• Semiotics provides very little help to construct

new messages because it only describes the “grammar” of the visual communication, not its “vocabulary.”

• To illustrate this position, I offer the following case study, which describes the meanings in the Apple and IBM logos. The description relies on an understanding of what the symbolism in the logos mean, not how humans receive and process those symbols.

Symbolism in Apple and IBM Logos

• An examination of the visual characteristics of their logos reveals each company’s philosophies and how they’re positioned in relation to each other in the mind of the consumer.

IBM

• Paul Rand first designed the IBM logo in 1957 as solid letters.

• He redesigned the logo in 1962, adding the now-familiar horizontal stripes.

• Rand, a typographer, designed the Egyptian font for the logo as well. Among the distinguishing characteristics of the font are the square counterforms in the B, and serifs on the bottom of the M, which extend outward only.

• The logo appears as a single block despite the fact that each letter is a different width.

• The stripes remind us of the binary nature of digital technology: on or off, color or non-color.

• The logo is printed in a single color, a bright blue. In fact, the association to blue is so strong that IBM is often referred to as “Big Blue.”

• The boldness and angularity of the logo suggest speed, strength and efficiency.

Apple Computers

• Rob Janov designed Apple’s logo in 1977. Its visual characteristics are opposite those of IBM’s logo for good reason—Apple wanted a symbol of defiance against the established order perpetuated by its biggest rival at the time.

• In contrast to IBM’s logo, which exhibits rectilinear shapes, a cool monochrome color scheme, disjointed repeating horizontal stripes and is totally made up of type, Apple’s logo is curvilinear, displays contiguous horizontal bands of non-repeating colors favoring the warmer hues, and is a pictogram.

• The bitten apple enclosing a rainbow is a reference to two biblical stories: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and Noah’s Ark and the Great Flood.

• The apple is a symbol of knowledge in both biblical and Newtonian contexts.

• The rainbow is a symbol of rebirth and new possibilities.

• The distorted spectrum is unconventional as a symbolic rainbow; for example, the NBC logo, exhibits an equal number of warm and cool colors, starting with warm and ending with cool hues.

• The Apple logo starts and ends with cool hues and favors mostly warm hues in the center of the logo.

• The bite is probably a visual pun on the computer term “byte,” but most importantly, it cuts through only warm colors, and invites the eye to rest on it, thus

emphasizing one of the contrasts with the IBM logo.

• Both companies’ philosophies:• IBM wishes to be associated with leading-edge

technology, competence, and high quality of service. IBM positions itself as a service provider and establishes distance from the consumer through hierarchy.3

– Jean-Marie Floch. Visual Identities. London: Continuum, 2000, p. 58.

• But Apple wishes to be thought of as an alternative to the established conventions. The company wishes to be associated with creativity, conviviality and freedom; Apple wishes to be thought of as a companion to the consumer.4

– Ibid, p. 58.

Common Elements

• Both logos are simple, strong and incorporate a motif of horizontal stripes.

• Floch deduces that the reversal of visual characteristics of the Apple logo in relation to the IBM logo is designed to “reverse its semantic value” and therefore associate IBM with “perpetuity, servitude and loneliness.”5

– Ibid, p. 49.

• The Apple logo was updated in 1999 to coincide with Steve Jobs’ return to Apple and the introduction of the fruit-colored iMac computers.

• The rainbow is still there; it’s just seen one color at a time to emphasize the curvilinear shape of the logo (and probably to help reduce printing costs as well).