The CODE-X series catalogs a vast codex of source codes (aka “signs”) extracted from past audits.

The object of study in semiotics is not the signs but rather a general theory of signification; the goal of each “audit” is to build a model demonstrating how meaning is produced and received within a category or cultural territory. Signs on their own, therefore, only become truly revelatory and useful once we’ve sorted them into thematic complexes, and the complexes into codes, and the codes into a meaning map. We call this process “thick description”; the Code-X series is thin description.

“EXPERT MIXOLOGY” NORM: The art of mixing drinks demands both education and inventiveness, craft and imagination.

“EXPERT MIXOLOGY” FORMS: The product has received an imprimatur from an expert — a mixologist. We often see carefully organized bartending ingredients (bitters, slices of fruit, liqueurs, etc.), and tools — like a surgeon’s instruments, laid out and ready to use.

(From a 2016 audit, commissioned by a global spirits company, of “Premium Spirits.”)