Understanding reception of visual puns in sustainable organisation logos: A semiotic approach

Abstract

Visual puns are frequently used in logos to enhance organisational recognition and memorability. Against this backdrop, the present study investigates how the interplay between visual puns and verbal messages promotes viewers’ reception of logos from South African sustainable organisations. Drawing on the extended relevance theory and social semiotics, the findings reveal that the resolution of incongruity in visual puns necessitates a switch between visual and verbal modes for viewers to understand the informative and affective intentions of communicators. The explicit verbal cues used in logos are more conducive to boosting contextual effects than implicit cues. Moreover, logos using iconic visual-verbal relations, as opposed to indexical or symbolic ones, require less processing effort, thereby increasing relevance. This suggests that such strategies improve semiotic cohesion, which is crucial for constructing the identity of sustainable organisations.