I’m coordinator of Semiofest’s series of informal online “sessions.” These events are intended not only to share best practices among, but to nurture collegiality and friendship within the global semio community.

Coming up on 26th April (at 2 pm UK time)…

SEMIOTICS & POLITICS

As semioticians, we are valued not only for our expertise but our objectivity. In a world (and branding landscape) becoming more ideologically polarised, how can applied semiotics meaningfully engage with political issues? In this session, three experienced semioticians will share their perspectives on election-campaign communications, how brands mediate nationhood, and how activists can make use of cultural-insights work.

Get tickets (suggested donations only) at the link above.

Our sessionists:

• ROMAN ESQUEDA has 30 years of experience helping brands develop persuasive messaging and design. Director of Synapsen, a qualitative marketing research company in Mexico City, he has developed qualitative methodologies using Peircean semiotics, Rhetoric, and Cognitive Neuroscience.

• Dr. ANASTASIA KĀRKLIŅA GABRIEL is a cultural theorist, social critic, and strategist who specializes in inclusivity within marketing, media, and tech. Author of Cultural Intelligence for Marketers: Building an Inclusive Marketing Strategy, she has consulted for such global agencies as Wieden+Kennedy, Dentsu, and McCann.

• RAPHAËL LLORCA is an independent strategist, an instructor at Sciences Po Paris, and author of The National Narrative of Brands (2023). For the past few years, he has used semiotics, philosophy, and political theory to analyze the political dimensions of brands.

Session host: CHRIS ARNING, founder of the boutique agency Creative Semiotics, has over 20 years of experience in doing applied semiotics. He is co-founder of Semiofest, tutor of the CPD-accredited course How to Do Semiotics in Seven Weeks, and author of the forthcoming book Brand Semiotics in 20 Diagrams.

SEMIOFEST SESSIONS: R/D/E | BINARIES | SEMIOTICS & UX | BODY SEMIOTICS | AI & SEMIOTICS | SEMIOTICS & CINEMA | FICTIONAL DECODERS | ON COLOUR | & more.

Also see these international semio series: COVID CODES | SEMIO OBJECTS | MAKING SENSE | COLOR CODEX | DECODER | CASE FILE