The CODE-X series catalogs a vast codex of design 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.

“CLASSY CAPSULE” NORM: The foil is, in part, an effort to class up the package; and, in part, a signal that this is imported beer. Found on imported beers such as Samuel Smith, Stella Artois, Edelstoff Augustiner-Brau, Modelo Especial, Leffe. In the past, foil “capsules” were sometimes used on beer bottles — as they still are, often, on wine bottles — to protect the cork from getting moldy. Today, foil on beer bottles is a decorative touch. PS: Beck’s, which uses foil on the neck — but not a foil capsule covering the cap — is a former import now brewed in the US.

“CLASSY CAPSULE” FORMS: Aluminum foil on a beer bottle’s neck.

(From a 2016 audit, commissioned by a global beer-brewing company, of bottle architecture and attributes.)