Design Studies: Does a picture tell a thousand words, or do you sometimes need them?

Our latest assignment was based around semiotics.

The dictionary describes this as the following:

"semiotics

plural noun [treated as sing. ]

the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation."

My group decided to do the second option for this - although I do not want to explain it fully, so you can try it out for yourself.

I showed the following images to 5 people; and asked them what it made them think - what did itmake them feel, and if it provoked any specific thoughts. Try not to click on the links below the images until you have read to the bottom.

Reveal

This was the first image. I got several answers:

"It motivates me."

"I have no idea what this is getting at."

"Metaphoric, the engine inside is driving us - giving us energy."

"Excitement in medicine."

"Cars, and The Stig."

Reveal

For this second image, a reasonably diverse selection of answers:

"This one makes me think of greed."

"Technology, it makes me think of things changing with the times."

"Diverse business, and consumerism."

"Reminds me of the saying many hands make light work."

"This makes me think of gluttony."

Reveal

 Third image:

"This makes me think of crime, I wouldn't say scared, but it makes me wary."

"Crime in general."

"A suspect in an ongoing crime. It also makes me think of authority and control."

"This reminds me of old fashioned police work."

"The police."

Reveal

Lastly:

"This makes me feel sad about the rain forests."

"This is making me think about supplies running out, i.e. oil etc."

"An attempt to generate awareness of depletion."

"This makes me think of recycling, and reducing the damage in third world countries and rain forests."

"The environment, and the fact we are basically killing it."

Next, I explained that these were all in fact photoshopped adverts, with their branding removed. I asked the volunteers if, on seeing what it was advertising, if their thoughts on the images changed. If you would like to take part, I have linked the original underneath each image. Feel free to leave your comments at the bottom of this page!

After revealing the brand, I got the following responses:

For the first image:

"This makes me feel lazy now, at first I was motivated, but not anymore."

"This still makes no sense to me."

"I can understand it now it is in context, but I would never of come to this conclusion without the logo."

"I still think what I thought before, although I do get it from the adverts perspective."

"It still reminds me of cars."

The second image generated the following:

"It changes my mind, I now think of cleanliness rather than greed."

"I can see that [it's the brand] now, it's quite clever."

"[The brand is] not what I would have expected."

"I still think what I originally thought."

"I still think it's creepy."

The third image:

"This makes me confused, does it make it criminal to use [the brand]? I would of thought [the advert] was for something like drink driving."

"This image doesn't really relate to the product, I am a bit confused."

"I think this image is unrelated and has no purpose in this context."

"I get it, I wasn't too sure what it was about to begin with but I understand it now."

"This doesn't make sense to me."

The fourth image:

"This makes me feel the same as before."

"I still think the same - things are running out."

"I still think the same."

"I like this, it's clever."

"I can understand it."

I have come to the conclusion that out of our selected images, the fourth image is the most successful at conveying it's purpose without text. The third however, is least successful, as even in the context of the product, it still fails to be understood. The first and second one are reasonable, as they remain equally misunderstood with or without branding.