ABSTRACT
Whether decorative, indicative, or informative in purpose, visuals need to be,
above all else, clear. To construct a language for such visuals, to aid in the discus-
sion of visual-clarity strategies, we have chosen the semiotic theory of a philoso-
pher, C. S. Peirce (Burk, 1958; Hartshone & Weiss, 1935), whose 10-part system
of sign-icon-index is applicable to 10 core visual types, including written text.
