SOCIAL INDEXICALITY IN THE VISUAL COMPLEXITY OF STOREFRONT SIGNS

Abstract

<p>Multimodal semiosis in shopping malls characterizes their identity and styles their clientele. With the help of a field study in two shopping malls of different grades in Hong Kong, this paper argues that the degree of the visual complexity of storefront signs indexes the standing of the shopping malls. Following Ghim and Shin (2021) by defining visual esthetics as interdependency between simplicity and complexity, this paper explores how both shopping malls optimize the appearance of the storefront signs fashioned with an identical and simple esthetic appeal and those customized with the designs contextually relevant to individual shops. A special focus was put on studying the form of visuality of such signage of the shops operating in both malls. I employed observations of the landscape of the two shopping malls in January and February 2023 during which photographic documentation was performed and annotated with the date, time and location. It has been found that the storefront signs in the high-end mall exhibit a more distinct preference for low-visual complexity, such as the use of homochromatic colors, whereas those of the mid-range mall permits the use of heterochromatic visual details of the brand names and logos of individual shops. As different semiotic means are used in both malls to identify their respective market segment, this methodology offered a more nuanced account of the strategic deployment of the semiotic resources to match the corresponding grade of both malls.</p>