The Meaning of Typographic Design in Malang Urban Space: Based on Signs and Objects Relations

Abstract

The phenomenon of the big text signs in almost all cities in Indonesia to mark the name of a place that is already known by the surrounding community will ultimately affect the collective knowledge of citizens. It is just that the presence of big writing is no longer unique when all the cities are busy creating and becoming stereotypes. However, without any endemic uniqueness that can be highlighted and proud of, the city's sense of place becomes a cliche. Its presence has plagued like a disease and become a talkative phenomenon for urbanites in Indonesia, Malang City is no exception. This study aims to interpret the phenomenon of urban space typography design in semiotics based on the pragmatic paradigm through the second semiosis process of the relation between representamen (signs) and objects in the city of Malang. The selected objects are typography of Malang City Square, Batu City Square, Idjen Boulevard, Brawijaya University, and Malang State University. This study uses a descriptive mix-method approach in exploring the meaning of the audience and understanding interpretants of the phenomenon of a series of uppercase letters in the urban space. The study shows that there is a relationship between the representamen (signs) and objects as icons and indexes. Nevertheless, it has not yet reached the relationship as symbols.