What’s on the Signs & Meaning poster
A 6-row table: Term · Means.
The working vocabulary.
- Signifier — The form: the mark, sound or image
- Signified — The concept it calls up
- Denotation — What is literally shown
- Connotation — What it suggests culturally
- Myth — Connotation that feels natural
- Code — The shared convention that allows it
Denotation and connotation are the two questions worth asking of any image: what is here, and what is it asking me to feel about it?
Questions about the Signs & Meaning poster
- What’s on the Signs & Meaning poster?
- A 6-row table: Term · Means. The working vocabulary. Signifier — The form: the mark, sound or image; Signified — The concept it calls up; Denotation — What is literally shown; Connotation — What it suggests culturally; Myth — Connotation that feels natural; Code — The shared convention that allows it. Denotation and connotation are the two questions worth asking of any image: what is here, and what is it asking me to feel about it?
- Who is the Signs & Meaning poster for?
- Signs & Meaning belongs to the Communications & Media section rather than to a school year, because humanities is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning media theory can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Signs & Meaning poster?
- When you must explain precisely how a photograph or advert makes its argument. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Signs & Meaning belongs on the wall where that humanities work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Signs & Meaning?
- Agenda-Setting, Cultivation and Encoding & Decoding sit alongside Signs & Meaning in the Communications & Media section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Agenda-SettingCultivationEncoding & Decoding
- Is the Signs & Meaning poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Signs & Meaning downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Communications & Media section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Signs & Meaning poster print at?
- Signs & Meaning is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Signs & Meaning loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Signs & Meaning on the same wall.
Browse every Communications & Media poster, or start from the full catalogue.