Penguin Books is a globally renowned publishing house. Their logo, the penguin, is instantly recognisable and when seen on a book clearly lets readers know that they are in for a quality read (How the penguin logo has evolved through the years, 2020). 

Though the logo, a black and white illustration of a front facing penguin looking to its right, sparks an immediate connection to the literary world, this perception is due to the company’s venerated standing in the industry and amongst its customers. The logo by itself does not directly reference books, the product being sold. As the meaning of the logo has been learnt over time through association and there is no logical connection between a penguin and books, the logo can be classified as a symbol (Crow, 2007). 

The Penguin logo on their books could function both as a symbol and as an index. The logo by itself is a symbol, however, when put into context on the book, the product itself, its meaning is informed by where it is placed, making it an index (Crow, 2007).

For our assignment of altering the semiotic classification of our chosen logo, I was intrigued by the idea of creating an Index variant of the Penguin Books logo. I wanted to see the effect that changing a recognisable but Symbolic image to an altered but slightly straightforward image would have on a brand’s perceived meaning. 

To create an index, I portrayed the Penguin holding one of its flippers up and reading a book. I also changed the position of the Penguin’s eyeball to make it look like it’s reading the book. 

I classify this logo as an index because there is a direct link between the symbolic Penguin and the company – the orange book that the Penguin is reading. The visual conveys enough to point towards a literary organisation, so there isn’t a lack of logical connection between the sign and what it means (Crow, 2007), making it not a symbol. The visual also does not physically resemble the thing it represents (Crow, 2007), as a penguin reading a book does not obviously mean it represents a company selling books. 

Such an argument makes me curious about whether icon, index, and symbol are the only categories within which signs can be classified? Does a sign not being an icon or a symbol make it an index? Can a sign not be an icon, index, or symbol?

Creating an altered version of the Penguin Books logo makes me question whether this rebrand makes the logo any more recognisable (by adding a new layer of meaning i.e. the book) or whether it takes away from an image that used to be instantly recognisable. 

If the iconic classification is to be considered the most direct and easy to understand among signs, the index classification as a bridge between obvious and vague, and the symbolic classification as an abstract and therefore less direct to understand way of representation, have I, in the process of simplifying meaning-making by transforming a symbolic representation to an indexical one, done the opposite and made the logo harder to read? Perhaps the answer is subjective. Perhaps the popularity of the logo and my own conditioning by encountering the logo everywhere plays on how I perceive my variant of the logo. Or perhaps ease of understanding and the semiotic classifications are unrelated.

References:

1. (2020) How the Penguin logo has evolved through the years. Available at: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/09/penguin-books-logo-history-edward-young-allen-lane (Accessed: 16 October 2024).