Marketing Code-X

Heart on Sleeve

Image for Heart on Sleeve

Carhartt commercial

The CODE-X series catalogs a vast codex of source codes (aka “signs”) extracted from past audits.

The object of study in semiotics is not the signs but rather a general theory of signification; the goal of each “audit” is to build a model demonstrating how meaning is produced and received within a category or cultural territory. Signs on their own, therefore, only become truly revelatory and useful once we’ve sorted them into thematic complexes, and the complexes into codes, and the codes into a meaning map. We call this process “thick description”; the Code-X series is thin description.

Levi’s “Love What You Wear” commercial

HEART ON SLEEVE” NORM: Believing in a right, true way to live — and then living that way, every day.

Volcom motto: “True to this”

HEART ON SLEEVE” FORMS: People truly dedicated to what they’re doing. Living, working, and playing with passion. “Move like you mean it.” “Soul.” “Built on purpose.” “True to this.”

From a 2018 study of the Timeless & True space — defined as staying true to yourself, a vanishing way of life — and what really matters.

Tags: CODE-X, Spirit of the West