From ten years of working in communication design (specialising in digital and interactive) and thousands of dollars spent on universities, books and conferences I think one of the main things I’ve learnt and now base my work on is that visual meaning is personal to the reader, based on their previous experiences — whether that be with the product/media they are reading or something as straight forward as their culture, but usually a combination of sources. This may seem really obvious but I think it’s one of the biggest things I see overlooked when speaking to graduates or people beginning a career in the design industry.

This theory has been around since the early 20th century when linguists and philosophers began to investigate the communication process, such as Saussure, Peirce and later Barthes. Meaning can be taken from anything we choose to take it from, whether an intentional act or not. Designers are responsible for intentional acts of communication which should encourage readers to extract meaning. A designer may use a certain colour or image or any other element (signifier) that she/he believes conveys a particular message, while the reader takes that signifier and applies it to their own experiences or culture (signified) and creates a completely different meaning (sign). In these cases I think the design has failed, regardless of how precisely the elements were laid out, or how well the type was kerned. That’s not to say having an intimate knowledge in the craft of design isn’t useful. Knowing how to kern type can be used to make it more accessible, or alter the meaning, or even make it more appropriate for a certain audience. My main point is that unless the design communicates what it intends to, to the right audience, then it has been badly designed. So something that you may think is extremely ugly, with a horrible colour scheme and poor typeface may in fact be brilliantly designed and just either not meant to speak to you, or meant to communicate a poor aesthetic so it appears from an amateur designer or someone from a different culture.

So how do you ensure that your design works? Unfortunately I don’t have a process that woks all the time, but I believe having an understanding of this theory is a good place to start. Once you know how it works it’s all about research. Research your demographic, take case studies of how users are using the media or channel you intend to use, prototype your ideas and test them.

This theory can be applied to everything within visual communication, from the menu system on a digital camera to how passengers navigate their way through an airport. Typeface selection has long been used to make meaning in some cultures; The Romans used serif faces to represent the empire, while san-serif faces represented the republic.

Let’s look at an example I’ve recently been involved with — the rhetoric of letterforms on vehicle dashboards. The type used on the dashboard includes the face used for the speedometer. It is important to be able to be read this quickly and accurately. Most cars feature a sans-serif simple face, such as Futura, rather than using their corporate typeface, to ensure legibility. A few exceptions to that rule do exist, and it seems the manufactures chose the typefaces for their meaning as well as legibility. There’s a great site devoted to car typography here.

Left to right: Renault, Honda, BMW.

The Renault VelSatis, a French-made car, adopts a retro face reminiscent of 1930s numerals. This face suggests a classically styled car, appealing to consumers who buy to reflect their personality. It also matches the style of the rest of the car. A brighter and larger version of the typeface is used for speeds that are likely to be speed limits, ensuring legibility.

Honda, a large Japanese car manufacturer, seems to use typefaces purely for meaning rather than legibility. The Honda Jazz uses a very rough, square typeface that has been slanted. The slant suggests movement, while the squared face is probably an attempt to match the sharp edges found in the style of the body. The slant on the typeface makes it harder to read, and the type has been set in a small size, making it even more difficult. Honda uses a similar face in the Civic Type-R. Again, the slant suggests speed, and this car is targeted at young drivers who want a fast car. The kerning is tighter in the Type-R, making it less legible, but makes it appear faster and more on edge. The dials have a white background, which gives the speedometer a better contrast with the typeface. This makes it slightly easier to read, but it still not as clear as it should be, given the task it has been assigned.

BMW, one of the main German automobile manufacturers, uses Frutiger in all of its cars –- a typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger in Switzerland in the 1920s. It’s a simple, strong, versatile, and very legible typeface, that suits its application perfectly. The face has a similar meaning to traditional German design qualities pushed by BMW, of reliability and quality. What is interesting is that BMW doesn’t use its corporate custom-designed typeface, which is very similar to Frutiger. BMW would have to license the use of Frutiger in every car they produce, adding up to quite a large fee.