Visual Identities

Translated from the French into English, the six essays of "Identites Visuelles" offer a contribution to the growing field of industrial semiotics. Floch's major strength is his analysis of signs in a way which is both industrially relevant and textually precise. Until recently there have been quite different and distinct ways of understanding commercial signs (such as logos and advertisements). Industry work has tended to look at questions of marketing and has often been reduced to mass psychology of "appeal" and poor audience research. At the same time the textual analysis of commercial signs has tended to be launched from several limited positions of identity politics and criticism (such as Marxism and feminism). Floch manages to find a way between and outside these traditions.