El diseño gráfico como forma de lenguaje: el "porqué" de los signos de Identidad Visual Corporativa en relación al "para qué"

Abstract

In a generic fashion we may define the concept of Design as a term that starts from the desire to communicate, an instrument of our modern society for the creation of social sense and meaning. Corporate Visual Identity (CVI) signs, as the product of graphic design, are a form of language in which visual and linguistic components intervene in a relationship of exchange. Thus, a CVI sign must be understood as a visual discourse, a «text» comprising different complementary signs —iconographic signs, typographic, chromatic and verbal signs— in relation to the external factors of a determined social context. Based on this reconsideration of Design on a linguistic basis, and contemplating as a central hypothesis that all CVI signs imply a verbal substrate, in which the intention is to justify the most significant aspects that constitute and deliver the meaning of the graphic discourse through CVI signs, with a view to rationalising the main issue of meaning. Based on this revised understanding of Graphic Design as having a linguistic foundation, designers must also see themselves to some extent as «translators».