Cambridge Scholars Publishing Semiotics and Visual Communication III: Cultures of Branding

The chapters in this book consist of selected papers that were presented at the 3rd International Conference and Poster Exhibition on Semiotics and Visual Communication at the Cyprus University of Technology in November 2017. They investigate the theme of the third conference, “The Semiotics of Branding”, and look at branding and brand design as endorsing a reputation and inhabiting a status of almost mythical proportion that has triumphed over the past few decades. Emerging from its forerunner (corporate identity) to incorporate advertising, consumer lifestyles and attitudes, image-rights, market-research, customisation, global expansion, sound and semiotics, and “the consumer-as-the-brand”, the word “branding” currently appears to be bigger than its own umbrella definition. From tribal markers, such as totems, scarifications and tattoos, to emblems of power, language, fashion, architectural space, insignias of communal groups, heraldic devices, religious and political symbols, national flags and the like, a form of branding is at work that responds to the need to determine the presence and interaction of specific groups, persons or institutions through shared codes of meaning. About the Author Evripides Zantides, PhD, is Professor of Graphic and Visual Communication at the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts at Cyprus University of Technology. His professional activities include the presentation of research papers in a number of journals and at international conferences on semiotics, graphic design education, typography and visual communication, and his participation, with distinguished work, in refereed art and design biennials and other international exhibitions. He is involved as a reviewer in scientific journals, and is the delegate for Cyprus in the Association Typographique Internationale and the International Association for Semiotic Studies. In addition, he is a member of the Hellenic Semiotic Society and founder member of the Graphic and Illustrators Association of Cyprus. His research interests are based on semiotics in the process of fine or applied audio/visualization of verbal language, using image, text/typography and sound. He is the founder and Director of the Semiotics and Visual Communication Lab of the Cyprus University of Technology (www.svclab.com).