What makes a semiotician tick? SEMIOVOX’s Josh Glenn has invited his fellow practitioners in the field of commercial semiotics, from around the world, to answer a few revealing questions.

Paris…

SEMIOVOX

When you were a child/teen, how did your future fascination with symbols, cultural patterns, interpreting “texts,” and getting beneath the surface of daily life manifest itself?

AUDREY BARTIS

When I was 6, my father enrolled me in a drawing class. It was amazingly boring, but learning to draw did teach me to analyze, in the sense of separating usually combined elements — like differentiating the light from the shape, the shape from the texture, and the texture from the shadow. When you train your brain and your eyes to notice a difference between various subtle nuances of light on objects or bodies, or to reproduce a specific tone of color, your ability to look at everything improves. (The same is true when it comes to photography.) For me, although they are very different practices, there is a strong connexion between making images and analyzing images — and I love doing both.

I was also fascinated with ancient Greek mythology, as a child — I was fascinated in particular with the symbolic aspects of these stories. Another important early influence was Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées, American comic books, and Japanese manga. I was a huge comics reader from the moment I could read… and at a certain point I discovered certain psychedelic and controversial BDs from the ’70s and ’80s, which were not intended for a child of my age. I found them at the public library in my small hometown, and my parents never noticed. These imaginary universes — with their symbols, crazy ideas, and creative ways of telling stories — really opened a part of my brain. When I see kids sneakily reading books that aren’t meant for them in libraries, today, I always smile.

SEMIOVOX

Describe your first encounter(s) with the theory and practice of semiotics.

AUDREY BARTIS

During my first academic year in “Arts & Communication” at the Sorbonne, Madame Casanova taught Semiology in a very practical way. She traumatized young people just arriving from high school… but she changed my life.

At the end of each class session, Mme. Casanova would project an image on the wall for 15 minutes, while we wrote an analysis of it. The next day, she’d return our essays with terrible marks and harsh comments. We couldn’t figure out what this woman wanted from us. One day, though, something clicked for me — and my paper got a “C,” a high mark in that class. After that, I was hooked. Semiology was perfect for my brain: difficult and also playful, logical and also creative.

I encountered the theoretical side later, while earning a Master’s in Linguistics — and, honestly, I enjoyed it less than practice. I still prefer reading Philosophy, Art Theory, Art History, and Anthropology.

SEMIOVOX

How did you find your own way to doing semiotics?

AUDREY BARTIS

In 1999, while studying at the Institut Français de la Mode with Bruno Remaury [the French anthropologist and fashion scholar] as my teacher, he gave me an opportunity to analyze a small designer brand he was managing on the side. I loved developing my own semiotic methodology in order to reveal the brand’s matrix of meaning.

I taught at the International Postgraduate Fashion Design Program from 2002–2012, and I’ve taught at other design schools since then, so I’ve remained close to fashion design and all sorts of designers, architects, and so forth. The body has become a central focus, not only of my teaching but my analytical practice too. The analytical tools I’ve developed during these years are very much based on the body. In fact, I’ve written a book on the topic — Le corps du luxe: marques & territoires corporels (The Body of Luxury: Brands and Corporeal Territories) — which I’m shopping around to publishers at the moment. There’s also a podcast version.

SEMIOVOX

What are the most important attributes of a good semiotician?

AUDREY BARTIS

I really could not say. Although I’ve noticed that semioticians / semiologists are a bit weird (myself included!) and can be really fun. So, maybe: wit, sense of humor, and a strong ability to observe. A quite obsessive brain with a taste for patterns, maps, and structures seems important as well.

SEMIOVOX

What three books about semiotics have you found the most useful and enlightening in your own work?

AUDREY BARTIS

• Jean Chevalier’s Dictionnaire des symboles (The Dictionary of Symbols). There is a moment in every project when this book becomes very useful. Just follow the path of symbols, and you’ll arrive at new levels of meaning.
• Andrea Semprini’s Le marketing de la marque: approche semiotique (Brand Marketing: A Semiotic Approach). Semprini’s demonstration of how maps can be used to position brands in terms of incarnations, spaces, discourses, etc., is very clear and well-done. It can really save the day.
• Bruno Remaury’s Marques et récits (Brands & Narratives). Remaury, whom I’ve identified as my mentor, is best known as an anthropologist of the imaginaries of femininity and the body’s symbolism, and more recently as an author of fiction. But he also wrote this very interesting book, with thoughtful and precise case studies, exploring the ways that brands connect themselves to cultural narratives.

SEMIOVOX

When someone asks you to describe what you do, what is your “elevator pitch”? How do you persuade a skeptical client to take a chance on using this tool?

AUDREY BARTIS

I usually describe myself as a “branding strategy consultant.” If the conversation goes further, I’ll call myself a semiologist — explaining that “I analyze meaning within images, especially for brands and design.” If talking to someone who knows something about brand management, I’ll explain that the meaning within a brand is complex — and semiotics is the perfect tool for managing that complexity.

SEMIOVOX

What specific sorts of semiotics-driven projects do you find to be the most enjoyable and rewarding?

AUDREY BARTIS

Besides design projects, I most enjoy a “big, deep” brand analysis. For example, I’ve had the opportunity to analyze iconic French brands like Louis Vuitton, Lanvin, and Martell. It’s a great experience to dig deeply and freely into their archives, stories, and sites. I’m delighted whenever I have a lot of material to analyze — a big “corpus.” With the right amount of time, and a large enough budget — and a client with strong intellectual curiosity, hopefully — it’s a blast.

I do a lot of work with designers, and architects too — particularly in workshops. They seem to enjoy it! Semiology is very nurturing, for designers and other creatives, as it offers a way to structure and connect concepts. It gives them a framework within which to be creative. I love teaching them how to use these tools, and giving them as much autonomy as possible — it never gets boring.

I have a really exciting project that will kick off this spring. A creative studio from a global Japanese automotive brand has asked me to collaborate with their European design team. I’ll help run workshops on Semiology, the body, and their brand. This will be my first time working with automotive designers; I can’t wait.

SEMIOVOX

What frustrates you about how semiotics is practiced and/or perceived, right now?

AUDREY BARTIS

My only regret is that Semiology is not more widely known as an efficient, useful, and constructive tool for brand strategy, innovation, and so forth. The fault is partly with ourselves — we need to make the discipline more attractive and accessible. But I’d like to see people who write about marketing and branding do more to present and discuss what we do, too. We need to do some network-building, on various fronts. So let’s connect — let’s talk and share.

SEMIOVOX

Peirce or Saussure?

AUDREY BARTIS

Ferdinand forever! But I must admit having an intellectual kink for Peirce as well.

SEMIOVOX

What advice would you give to a young person interested in this sort of work?

AUDREY BARTIS

I would tell them what I tell my students:

• Train yourself to suspend your judgement about what you see. If you like something too much or if you hate it too much, analysis is impossible. So maintain a cool, distant, candid perspective. This is good life-advice, too.
• Look at everything, all the time. Constantly feed your brain and eyes, through remaining curious and open-minded. “A mind is like a parachute,” Frank Zappa is supposed to have said: “It’s useless if it’s not open.”

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