Towards a Cognitivist Understanding of Communication Design

by Phil Jones

Overview

This book demonstrates the relevance and importance of cognitive linguistics when applied to the analysis and practice of graphic design/communication design.

Phil Jones brings together a diverse range of theory and organizes it in accordance with different stages in the design process. Using examples from contemporary communication design, as well as more familiar selections from the graphic design canon as case studies, this book provides an account of how meanings are made by users, and suggests new strategies for design practice. It seeks convergences between the ways that graphic/communication designers think and talk about their practice and the theories emerging from cognitive science.

This book will be of interest to scholars working in design, graphic design, the philosophy of art and aesthetics, communication studies, and media and film studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032214153
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/26/2025
Series:	Routledge Research in Design Studies
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dr Phil Jones is MA Graphic Design Course Leader at the Arts University Bournemouth.

Table of Contents

Introduction  Section 1: Communication  1.What designers mean by communication  2. Problems with conventional understanding of communication: The conduit metaphor  3. Towards a cognitive approach to communication design  4. Language and visual language: Grammar and vocabulary  Section 2: Design  5. Scoping  6. Ideation 1: Abstraction and schematics  7. Ideation 2: Mapping concepts to physical forms  8. Ideation 3: Conceptual frames  9. Form and meaning: Montage, graphic fusion, and hybridity as strategies to evoke meaning vonstruction  10. Blending webs and multimodal communication  11. Speculative design, UI, AI, and extended cognition