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.

“PLANTATION FANTASY” NORM: A dominant Jamaica rum category story now is nostalgia for the plantation.

“PLANTATION FANTASY” FORMS: Very attractive old-fashioned packaging. Nostalgia can be charming… but this can feel like nostalgia for white supremacy.

From a 2019 study of the COLONIAL JAMAICA space — in which rum brands unapologetically boast about creating extraordinary rum from Jamaican raw materials.