The Relationships Between Quaker, The Company, And Semiotics :: essays research papers

The Relationships Between Quaker, The Company, and Semiotics For my presentation I have looked at one of Peterborough's oldest and biggest manufacturer, The Quaker company. More specifically the outside and inside of the building. As I was driving towards the building I thought, what was so significant about the Quaker building and how could a picture of a Quaker be so significant in today's culture. I also thought that this whole image of Quaker could not be that overwhelming, however, with great embarrassment I was completely mistaken. This one business and more specifically building has so many signified meanings and linguistic meanings that I did not no where to start from. When I stood at the foot of the hill of the Quaker building I was overwhelmed by the enormous size of it and how it sits on a hill overlooking the north end of downtown Peterborough. I started to think that this is the signifier, it's big and it's on a hill. Now if you think about this for a minute you begin to realize that simply the size and position of this building has many meanings, which are of course subconsciously. The Quaker building has many meanings and therefore the signified list is very long, but first we will look at the signifier. The sign is the word Quaker, plain and simple, and the signifier is Q-u-a-k-e-r. However the word Quaker is not just a word, it means many, many things, which is where the signified comes in. The actual building is huge, which gave me the feeling that they are a successful company and that their product must be all over the world. The building is also white brick. This, without even knowing it gives you a feeling of safety and purity(just as their products should be). Then there is the fact that it is situated on the top of a hill, when you put meaning to this, there is the feeling of greatness and domination. In my opinion these meanings or signified's work like a funnel, they all at first have nothing to do with each other, but when you put them together they all funnel into one thing, a marketing ploy to buy their product. My point is, that they new exactly where to place theirbuilding and what colour to paint it for the sole purpose of selling their products. They new what meanings people would pull from these signs and signifiers. When looking at the word Quaker you get a feeling of comfort. It gives an impression of going back to past times where morals and family values were at