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.

“BUSTING LOOSE” NORM: You’ve been a prisoner of pain for too long. It’s time to stage a jailbreak.

“BUSTING LOOSE” FORMS: Women shown breaking free from pain. Arms stretched out in a gesture of liberation. Visual metaphors for pain retreating. Fake smile replaced by a real one. “Finally, free yourself from back pain.” “Chronic migraine doesn’t have to knock me down.”

From a proprietary 2019 study of the Back to Normal space within the Pain category (US).