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

Note that signs on their own, while sometimes interesting, only become truly revelatory and useful once they’re sorted 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.

“NORDIC BROODING” NORM: Though alone and solemn, these individuals aren’t necessarily unhappy. As the Danish existentialist Kierkegaard lamented: Once upon a time, thoughtful people sought out solitude, but “nowadays the only use that can be made of solitude is imposing it as a penalty, as jail.”

“NORDIC BROODING” FORMS: On the websites and in the social media feeds of many Nordic brands, we find a code in which a solitary figure tramps along a lonely road — looking inward as much as outward.

From a 2015 audit of the Nordic-ness space.