Signs: Units of significance

In walking down a high street in downtown San Francisco a year or so back I spotted a sign in a store window. The sign consisted of a large piece of paper with just three words written upon it in large type. It said, ‘SIGNS MEAN BUSINESS’. In a sense, those three simple words, taken together, sum up what we are trying to achieve within this book. We are trying to make a case for the importance of signs within systems of various forms. Signs are critically important in all forms of activity, including business. Signs are important because they establish what it is to be human. Without signs we could not think, we could not communicate what we think and we could not ensure that we collaborate successfully in our working, home and leisure activity.