The Mouse's Tale

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation, also known as the science of signs. For example, if we look at the picture below of Lewis Carroll’s “The Mouse’s Tale”, we can clearly see that it is a poem. However, when we take a closer look at it, we start to notice the different use of not only colour but also the alignment and hierarchy of the text. Having mentioned that this poem is called “The Mouse’s Tale”, it is now very easy to spot that the text is forming the shape of a tail. And although it is only made out of text, the human eye and brain like to work together to work things out and interpret the meaning of everything. And if that wasn’t enough to give the obvious away, we are struck by a small picture of a mouse at the bottom of the text to finalise and state a point. All of which, we can very simply relate to graphic design in a way that dates back to the 1900s. Nowadays, graphic design is very often described as visual communication and our job as graphic designers is to put a point across using language and symbols as simplistic as possible to make the viewer grasp the idea and message behind it straight away.

Lewis Carroll - The Mouse's Tale, 1864