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.

“NOMAD LIFE” NORM: There’s more to life than what we can experience sticking close to home — let’s get out there and take risks. Luxury means living lightly, gracefully, freely — never allowing yourself to get stuck in a rut. Getting away from your home, your city, your country.

“NOMAD LIFE” FORMS: On the road, out there somewhere, into the wild — yet remaining stylish and poised. Depicts true friendships, deeper than the friendships available to us in normal life.

From a 2022 study of the US Luxury space — across categories.