19. Analysing Semiotics and Affective Values of Posters

Various design approaches have been taken for designing posters in different contexts of branding and promotion. Affective approaches are common in the case of many advertisements; however, there are limited studies conducted on the affective evaluation of posters. Apart from affective evaluation, semiotic analysis is also crucial for the communication of meaning to the target audience in an effective way. This paper aims to evaluate posters designed for different branding contexts using semiotic and affective analysis and the establishment of novel methods for the analysis of posters. A novel set of ontologies has been developed based on the literature and expert suggestions and these ontologies were applied to evaluate poster designs. Later the affective evaluation of posters has been conducted using Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) questionnaire to ensure the emotional qualities of posters in relation to the expressed meanings conveyed by posters. Results of this study suggest the newly developed semiotic ontologies are effective in gauging the desired communication through posters by designers and mapping the affective qualities of the posters. It can be concluded that the developed set of semiotic ontologies and SAM test with contingency method will be useful for designers to evaluate the poster designs.