Free Semiosis 101 Transcript 5.3:
Pragmatic Semiotic Powers: Three Levels to Mediate Visual Communication
Hello readers.
In this free transcript for the episode published on Semiosis 101 on Weds 28th October 2026, we will go into semiotic power in more depth. As I constantly state both online and now in book form, to apply theory you begin with the creative process and then to the theory. So look on this episode as a congregator for all the information on these three pragmatic semiotic power levels.
Watch the free episode on YouTube for the full impact…
…and here is the episode’s transcript.
In the previous episode you became aware of pragmatic semiotic power levels …Perception Power, Communication Power and Delivery Power. In this episode we will go into semiotic power in more depth. We will be referring back to my 2027 Semiotics for Designers and Illustrators book to where you’ll locate this information (see description for link to buy the book). Just as semiotic power is discussed in various Semiosis 101 episodes across several seasons, semiotic power is also discussed across several book chapters. The obvious reason for this is…
>drumroll please<
…context.
As I constantly state both online and now in book form, to apply theory you begin with the creative process and then to the theory. So look on this episode as a congregator for all the information on these three semiotic power levels. To be technical for a moment, Charles Sanders Peirce names these power levels trichotomies, and to risk losing your attention further, these are the trichotomy of the Object, the Representamen and the Interpretant. These are Peirce’s obtuse terms which are meaningless to you designers and illustrators, yes?
This is why I refer to these trichotomies as ‘power levels’ and use the nouns perception, communication and delivery. These more useful nouns mask Peirce’s terms and demonstrate what they power to help you to enhance how you visually communicate. I have even changed the ordering of his trichotomies to help you understand the semiotic power that Semiosis provides you. Perception Power refers to his 3rd trichotomy of the Interpretant, Communication Power his 2nd trichotomy of the Object, and Delivery Power his 1st trichotomy of the Representamen.
Why have I reversed the ordering? Well, I’m sure you’d agree that perception of communication leads to the delivery of meaning, yes? Peirce’s trichotomies begin with the order of the determination flow from concept (Object) through representation (Representamen) to interpretation (Interpretant). Whereas, to explain the power of semiotic visual communication, I begin my ordering with the moment of your audience’s perception of meaning when they encounter your design or illustration’s visual language. The moment WHEN the semiotic signs within your visual language TRIGGERS the audience’s interpretation and your semiotic mediation of deeper meaning within your aesthetic.
Peirce’s Interpretant is the effect of the semiotic sign on the audience’s minds. Perception Power has three ascendent properties that semiotically structure this (dependant on the semiotic sign class): either possible (Rhematic), suggested (Dicent) or resolved (Argument) meanings.
On Semiosis 101 I first began to discuss this in season three’s episode 3.2. I then expanded on it in 3.13 into the semiotic power of threes. This helped you to understand how Peirce’s ten classes of semiotic signs work in episodes 3.15 and 3.17, before using episodes 3.18 and 3.19 to give you some practical contexts to how it works in illustration and design. Then in season four episodes 4.12 and 4.19 we went deeper into contextualising Perception Power. This resulted in explaining this power as the intensity of the semiotic sign to visually communicate meaning, from weak to strong levels …possible > suggested > resolved meaning.
In my Semiotics for Designers and Illustrators book, chapters one, two and three cover Perception Power and prepare you for chapter four on the ten semiotic sign classes.
The importance of Perception Power levels is that within semiotic sign-action represented meaning is interpreted in stages. Simple qualities weakly offer visual hooks to possible meaning beyond mere qualities or denotational meaning e.g. a curved line could possibly represent a tree branch, a moustache, a wing, etc. This is obviously dependent on the audience’s lifeworlds of prior reference points.
Once perception of deeper meaning is hooked, your visual language can then semiotically suggest what the audience was meant to interpret, so that their latitude for interpretation is mediated toward the desired conceptual message and a resolved general socio-cultural meaning.
If you want to read more about semiotic power levels you can also check out my Semiosis 101 Semiotic Resource on semiosis101.online. Link is below in the description. This leads us to Communication Power.
Communication Power in the context of Peirce’s Semiosis is what he calls the Object trichotomy comprising of Iconic, Indexical and Symbolic semiotic representation of the concept. In plainer terms, from simple to complex we can frame the power levels of semiotic communication as familiar to (Iconic), existent of (Indexical) or a proxy for (Symbolic) …the concept.
There have been many Semiosis 101 episodes on each of these ways for representation of the concept to mediate meaning. To save time it’ll be quicker to just say check out the three dedicated free Semiosis 101 YouTube Iconic representation, Indexical representation and Symbolic representation playlists.
As for Semiotics for Designers and Illustrators, Communication Power is introduced in chapter one and further contextualised in chapters two and three. Once contextualised, Iconic, Indexical and Symbolic representation are freely used.
Semiotic Communication Power helps you to make effective aesthetic decisions in your visual language to convey meaning at different levels. In the ten semiotic sign classes, Communication Power is present before the first triggering of perception of meaning supporting the semiotic mediation until meaning is generally resolved and agreed. This brings us to the final semiotic power.
Delivery Power is Peirce’s Representamen trichotomy. If perception of meaning is powered as possible (Rhematic), suggested (Dicent) or resolved (Argument); and communication of the concept utilises either the familiar (Iconic representation), the existent (Indexical representation) or as a proxy for (Symbolic representation); then the semiotic delivery of meaning within a semiotic sign is controlled by it being either a Qualisign, a Sinsign or a Legisign. We can think of these as three states that semiotic delivery takes.
A Qualisign is ephemeral, on the edge of audience perception, sitting in your visual language as trigger points to activate interpretation. Only the Sign One class can be a Qualisign as as soon as a visual element’s quality is perceived as meaning-bearing, then Semiosis has begun and the audience has instantly begun interpreting your representation of the concept.
Once interpretation is under way and the audience is subconsciously trying to understand what is being connotatively visually communicated, then this meaning is delivered in small sin-gle mediated hits of interpreted understanding - Sinsigns. As Semiosis progresses doing its semiotic thing, single deliveries of meaning coalesce into fuller understanding of the connotative message. The highest delivery of meaning is socio-culturally agreed, that in this visual context, this thing is a visual proxy for this other thing now.
This socio-cultural agreement is a general meaning (confused? think of how a logo works) and that delivery of meaning is a Legisign - Legi, as in a set “law.” If you’re perplexed what this means then think of Nike’s swoosh logo, and how you accept that a “swoosh” means Nike! Check out Semiosis 101 season four episodes 4.6, 4.13 and 4.19, and book chapters one, two and three.
This episode has presented the three pragmatic semiotic power levels that drive the determination flow from representation to interpretation to the concept, helically cycling back to representation in a process of Semiosis to semiotically visually communicate the intended meaning, in small single mediated hits (Sinsigns) of understanding. Your visual language decisions are where semiotic signs of varying degrees mediate the latitude for audience’s to interpret intended meaning.
Semiosis is the process, your design or illustration is the mediation of meaning, and your audience…? Well, they work WITH you as a proactive part of visual communication. My challenge to you is to take a pragmatic semiotic turn in your creative thinking to see your target audience not as passive consumers, but as knowledge agents who bring their prior reference points to interpreting meaning.
This phenomenon may be new to you, so in the next episode we will focus on phenomenology and creativity. Remember to subscribe to Semiosis 101 on YouTube to be notified when it’s published. Or become a Semiosis 101 Producer on Patreon and watch all future episodes months ahead of YouTube …plus a full episode archive, with other exclusive Patreon-only video content and a Semiosis 101 Producer credit.
Hint… hint…
