Visual Identities

Jean-Marie Floch
Translated by Pierre Van Osselaer and Alec McHoul

CONTINUUM London and New York

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Waterman and its doubles

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In this chapter I want to do two things: to work through the problematic idea of identity and also to introduce the kind of semiotics used in the six essays that comprise this book. I decided to do this, simply and concretely, by analysing a particular Waterman advertisement that appealed to me from the first time I saw l it I'm not referring, then, to its obvious charm or to its humour; rather to its narrative and linguistic richness. Let's start by saying that the advertisement is a story: a story about the differences and similarities between two brothers. By narrating their respective careers - and the part played by a Waterman pen in marking the commonalities between their different paths - the advertisement deals with the question of identity and, in particular, with the question that interests us in this book: the question of visual identity. More particularly it deals with such things as school uniforms, handwriting and (very specifically) the way in which the letter 'W' is drawn - so that the letter itself becomes a symbol of 'tWinship' or 'gemellity'. But the 'message' of the advertisement is also an example of linguistic syncretism. That is, by combining writing, photography and graphics (th..u.Qgo) to give meaning and value to a brand-nal1).~...p-~.n, the advertisement itself justifies the kind of semiotic analysis used here. This is because the advert's own purpose is to describe the means by which meaning [signification] is produced and ultimately expressed through various signs and forms of language.

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This advertisement for Waterman was created by the McCann-Erickson agency. Delangle was the commercial director and Steve Ohler the creative director.

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10

Visual Identities

A segmental analysis of the advertisement
When analysing a written