Iconographic Communication

Iconographic communication involves an exploration of signs and symbols that through heavy use have acquired rich connotations and consequently convey powerful meanings that are clearly understood and are recognizable by members of a community. In fact, they give an inkling as to how communities came about. More so as “identities are formed by signification processes spun around specific individuals or groups, where people in thought and action link somebody or something to a range of meanings representing characteristic traits and values for that person or collective.” Human beings are themselves symbolic animals who make sense of the world through deployment and use of symbols. Symbols are images that have been invested with meaning. Kroeber makes a distinction between signs and symbols describing the former as natural even though it may be supplemented with learning unlike the latter which is wholly learnt but also subject to extensions to make them universally applicable.