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 BATHING” NORM: Drinking coffee/tea means escaping into nature from unhealthy life.

“NATURE BATHING” FORMS: Co-living with nature and sustainability tropes. People — women, in the examples here — dancing, walking, smiling in natural spaces. Desire to ingest nature itself via the product: “Mother Nature, please be the most wholesome part of me.”

From a 2021 study of the SELF CARING (In order to thrive, you must nurture your body, mind, and spirit) territory, within Japan’s Coffee category.