001: Why I wrote this book…

Semiotics for Designers and Illustrators (2026)

Book Newsletter 001

Semiotics for Designers and Illustrators is my second book published by Bloomsbury. I had the idea for a design book explaining Charles Sanders Peirce’s pragmatic semiotic theory as far back as 2017. This was a year after I completed my Visual Communication PhD at Edinburgh College of Art.

I did propose a similar book idea to Bloomsbury in 2017, but thankfully that was turned down. My first Bloomsbury book had been published in 2014 and after submiiting that 2017 book idea I felt that I was too premature that Peircean design book idea It wasn’t until 2023 that I felt I had the scope and the content to write the semiotics book I wanted to read.As it turned out, in 2017 Steven Skaggs’ Peircean design book Firesigns: A Semiotic Theory for Graphic Design was published

I had launched my Semiosis 101 YouTube channel in 2022,ue to the 2020-22 Covid pandemic my Semiotic Rosetta Stone research and dissemination had stalled. At the time I had been the programme director of BDes(Hons) Graphic Design at DJCAD^⁠ [1] and a public-facing YouTube channel was perfect for disseminating my research straight to illustrators and designers. On Semiosis 101, I decided to discuss aspects of applying Peirce’s semiotic theory in seasons of 20 ten-minute episodes.

This meant I could theme each season and revise the discussion as these season’s progressed. Immediately I received very favourable feedback from academics, creatives and students from as far as China. This encouragement made me rethink my 2017 book idea, as I now had the content and a growing audience. After all, in a book I can explain Peirce’s semiotic theory in a more cohesive way than I can in ten-minute bite-sized videos.

After my PhD I had thought long and hard about how to frame and contextualise how to explain Peirce’s semiotic theory to non-theoreticians. The most obvious point was pragmatic semiotic sign-action (Semiosis) could never be approached as a how-to reference book. I discuss elsewhere how obtuse Peirce’s writing is (as he created his own terminology). In my 2019 IASDR conference paper Little Designer in Theoryland: A Designer-centric Approach to Understanding Theory I had established the principles that my new book (and Semiosis 101) would follow.

In 2023 my book proposal to Bloomsbury was accepted and in July 2024 I signed the contract. Although my desire to call the book Semiosis 101 to tie directly in with my YouTube channel was poo-pooed. On reflection I now realise that the mutually accepted title - Semiotics for Designers and Illustrators - is practically my 2017 book proposal’s title.

¹ Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD), University of Dundee, Scotland.