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.

“MAGICAL MYSTERY” NORM: Life as performance art — soulful, intense, rich and eccentric. Luxury means getting in touch with what matters most — emotions, spirit, bodies. Everyday life is no longer banal — instead it is soulful and sexy.

“MAGICAL MYSTERY” FORMS: Dreamlike experience in real contexts (vs. the unreal contexts of “Lucid Dreaming”). Life lived with intention and intensity — no matter how weird it may look to anyone else.

From a 2022 study of the US Luxury space — across categories.