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.

“NATURE’S BOUNTY” NORM: Our milk comes to you straight from Mother Earth.

“NATURE’S BOUNTY” FORMS: Idyllic pastures and farms. Travelogue-style photography. Farmers (and cows) sometimes in scene. The product may be juxtaposed with the pasture/farm — suggesting that it comes directly from the Earth. Glamour shots of the plant (for non-dairy): dewy close-ups of the almond trees in flower, almonds ripening, etc. Waving fields of oats, soybeans, etc. Provenance-talk. “It all starts here in California” (Clover Sonoma). “Our almonds come straight from the fertile fields of California’s Central Valley” (Dream). Goodness of nature: “Crafted from the goodness of plants” (Chobani); “Goodness from the ground up” (Organic Valley); “Land makes Oats makes Oatmilk” (Silk)

From a 2022 study of the WHOLESOME territory — associating milk with an old-fashioned way of life — within the Dairy & Non-Dairy Milk category.