TÖB — BRAND AS A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
BRAND AS A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
STRUCTURE
1. Introduction: communication framework
2. Presentation for a General Audience
3. Presentation for a Professional Audience
4. Rationale behind the strategy
5. Conclusion
INTRODUCTION: COMMUNICATION FRAMEWORK
In contemporary communication theory, the act of meaning‐making extends far beyond linguistic exchange. Sensory stimuli, material qualities, and bodily responses continuously shape how individuals perceive themselves and their environment. TÖB positions softness as a central communicative medium, one capable of expressing emotional states and facilitating non‐verbal interaction. Soft, rounded forms, gentle curves, and tactile visual structures become signals that convey safety, openness, and emotional grounding.
COPERNI S/S 2023 METAL BAG
Unlike communication systems that rely on spatial negotiation or behavioral observation, TÖB explores how tactile aesthetics themselves function as messages. Softness possesses a universally recognisable emotional quality: it calms, supports, and invites closeness. Through abstraction and reduction, TÖB isolates these qualities, transforming them into a coherent visual language capable of operating across contexts. Curvature, density, and volume act not as decorative elements but as semantic carriers that the viewer interprets intuitively.
TÖB draws upon semiotics, embodied cognition, and sensory studies to understand how people process tactile forms. The project treats softness as a signifier of emotional experience, one that activates associations related to comfort, vulnerability, relaxation, and care.
Tactile perception often occurs before conscious reasoning, softness becomes a highly efficient communicative tool: it reaches audiences through affective immediacy rather than analytical processing.
By translating tactile sensations into stable visual structures, TÖB creates a typology of soft emotional states. This system demonstrates how material qualities — smoothness, roundness, elasticity can form the basis of a structured communicative framework. The resulting brand language is not merely aesthetic; it is grounded in the understanding that emotional communication is embodied, sensory, and deeply intuitive.
TÖB reveals that softness is not passive, but active communication: a medium capable of shaping attention, influencing emotional response, and fostering a sense of safety within visual interaction.
PRESENTATION FOR A GENERAL AUDIENCE
TÖB is a brand built around the idea that softness can communicate emotions. Everyone knows how it feels to touch something warm, flexible, or gentle — it immediately affects the body and mind. TÖB takes this familiar experience and turns it into a visual language made of soft shapes, rounded structures, and calm compositions.
Each form represents a different emotional state: a need for comfort, a moment of relaxation, a sense of grounding, or the desire to feel protected. TÖB’s shapes feel warm, approachable, and quiet, they invite you to slow down and pay attention to how you feel. The project explores how softness influences our behavior, how tactile materials shape our emotional reactions, and how gentle forms can create a feeling of safety. TÖB encourages viewers to notice these subtle sensations and understand how non‐verbal, tactile communication affects daily life.
PRESENTATION FOR A PROFESSIONAL AUDIENCE
TÖB conceptualizes softness as an embodied communicative system. Rather than focusing on spatial negotiation or movement patterns, the brand examines how tactile qualities and soft material forms structure emotional perception. Using principles of semiotics, sensory studies, and visual abstraction, TÖB frames softness as a communicative code that operates on an intuitive, pre‐verbal level.
The project draws on theories of embodied interaction, emphasizing that meaning is not only cognitively constructed but also felt.
RATIONALE BEHIND THE STRATEGY
TÖB’s communication strategy is built on the idea that softness itself is a medium of non‐verbal communication. The brand treats tactile qualities, curved forms, and material softness as signals that affect emotional perception and shape interpersonal experience. Through abstraction and reduction of sensory noise, TÖB constructs a visual system that communicates comfort, empathy and emotional grounding.
1. CLARITY & NOISE REDUCTION Softness is often associated with sensory overload: textures, layers, materials, emotional associations. To communicate clearly, TÖB removes visual noise and focuses on the core expressive qualities of
2. CHANNEL–AUDIENCE FIT Unlike brands whose primary channel is physical interaction or digital text, TÖB communicates through visual tactility — soft imagery designed for audiences who process meaning emotionally rather than intellectually.
3. SEMIOTIC CODES OF SOFTNESS Softness operates as a semiotic system in which shape equals meaning. TÖB constructs a typology of soft emotional states. People understand softness intuitively: it signals safety, warmth, and emotional presence. TÖB translates these associations into a stable system of signs, allowing viewers to interpret emotional states through form.
4. MESSAGE PROCESSING (ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL) According to the ELM, people process emotional visual information peripherally — quickly, intuitively, without cognitive effort. Softness naturally belongs to this category: it is felt before it is understood.
CONCLUSION
TÖB demonstrates how softness can function as a complete communicative system. By translating tactile sensations into abstract visual language, the brand makes emotional states visible, structured, and accessible. TÖB is not simply an aesthetic exploration — it is a framework for understanding how people perceive comfort, safety, and emotional openness through form. The project shows that non‐verbal communication is not only spatial or behavioral but also material and sensory.
- Softness becomes a message. - Curvature becomes a sentence. - Warmth becomes a mode of connection.
Through clarity, emotional resonance, and a coherent visual grammar, TÖB establishes softness as a powerful medium of contemporary communication.
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