Communication strategy: Fragments d’un discours amoureux
Our reflection on how communication theory works in the field of design and contemporary art
Within the framework of contemporary creative practice, design and contemporary art are fundamentally acts of communication. From the outside, it may seem that an aesthetic object or any other art object does not carry complex strategic decisions, but it is important to remember that this is always a purposeful process of constructing meanings and narratives, taking into account a specific audience located in a certain cultural, social and ideological context. That is why it is impossible to analyze design and art only through form and function, because it is a complex message transmission system that exists in a dense media ecology.
The course says that at the most basic level, design and art function as a means of mass communication. According to Marshall McLuhan, «the medium of communication is the message» and the user has the power to determine the content of the message, the user is the content. The audience cannot be a passive observer in any way, the more they get involved and interact with the environment, the more fully the brand’s message is revealed. This active role of the audience is directly related to the theory of «Uses and Gratifications». For example, a person comes to a gallery for an exhibition or downloads a certain app and they already have a set of goals and desires that this product should satisfy: to get aesthetic or intellectual pleasure, confirm their identity, relieve tension, and so on. This selection process, in turn, is regulated by the Selective Exposure mechanism, when a person unconsciously strives for images and forms that are in harmony with his value system, avoiding those that cause cognitive dissonance.
It follows from this that, first of all, in a brand, a person is looking for a community with which he wants to associate himself and to which he wants to belong. That is why brand values should be read instantly on a subconscious level, and attract the right audience. This process is a clear demonstration of Cultivation Theory. Through consistent communication in its design, tone of voice, and content, a brand purposefully «cultivates» a lifestyle, a system of values and worldview. Repeating visual and narrative patterns gradually instills in the audience a belief that this particular style, these values, and this community are the most desirable and authentic. In addition to values and positioning, a brand should consider which competitors it has and what distinguishes it from them, what kind of insight the consumer comes with, and what reasons they have for trusting it.
However, it is important to understand that a truly strong and sustainable brand today is not one that simply sells belonging to a certain lifestyle, but one that, like the practice of dialogical theory in PR, engages its audience in a substantive dialogue, recognizes their active role, is ready to develop under their influence and promotes the formation of not just a consumer community, but a critical public space (Jurgen Habermas) around meaningful values.
Presentation for a General Audience
Fragments d’un discours amoureux
Fashion photography as an interpretation of the «figures» (fragments of thoughts) of the subject in love. Based on Fragments of a Lover’s Speech, Roland Barthes, 1977.
About The project interprets the inner monologue of a man in love, inspired by Roland Barthes' book Fragments of a Lover’s Speech (1977). The shooting focuses on fragments — fleeting thoughts, moods, and reactions that arise during an ordinary day, rejecting a linear story.
Idea Communication is built around recognition, not explanation. The viewer is invited to recognize in the images their own experience of love: detachment, vulnerability, drama, lightness and joy. The footage does not indicate how to feel — it allows feelings to manifest themselves naturally, only guiding the viewer through tools such as light, color, posing, clothing, and camera angle.
Looking at a series of photographs of the shooting, the viewer’s gaze follows one androgynous character through locations related to everyday life. As the locations change, so do the emotional states of the character, and new stories are revealed. Each image reflects one of the types of thinking, remaining part of the same person, one day, one emotional cycle.
Visual language is formed by four types of fragments of thinking, presented by Roland Barthes:
• Neutrality and distance — calmness, restraint, emotional pause. • Vulnerability and tenderness — openness, gentleness, sensitivity. • Drama and tragedy — internal resistance, tension, grief, emotional superiority. • Lightness and celebration — relaxation, joy, fatigue from happiness, desire to dress up.
Production Approach The rhythm of shooting feels spontaneous. The movements are natural, the gestures are casual. Posing is close to real life, which allows clothes to fully convey the emotions of the character, rejecting simple demonstration.
The styling adapts to each shooting location, while maintaining the integrity of the entire series. Clothes don’t compete with their surroundings—they belong to them. Stylistic solutions to things become a visual extension of thought — each image translates a specific emotional fragment.
Postproduction Postproduction enhances the feeling of intimacy. Soft color codes, clean frames and minimalistic typography create comfortable conditions for a calm pace of perception. The text appears in one line — not as a statement, but as a fragment of thought, carefully directing attention, emphasizing the composition of the image, without capturing the viewer’s attention.
The key message Love does not speak in sentences. It speaks in fragments.
Goal To create an emotional connection between the viewer and the shooting, making fashion human, inner and lived. Communication feels quiet, sincere and personal — the images do not indicate, but direct to self-reflection.
Presentation for a Professional Audience
Overview of the communicative concept This project functions as a visual translation of internal discourse, rejecting narrative history. Filming conveys meaning through the fragmentation of thoughts as autonomous units of affect that do not obey linear logic, directly referring to the ideas of Roland Barthes in the text Fragments of a Lover’s Speech (1977).
The project positions fashion as a way to express an emotional state, rather than as an object of consumption. Clothing works as a semiotic layer, acting as a special language to reflect the feelings of the subject.
Strategic logic of communication • Shooting replaces the narrative sequence with an affective one: the images are connected not by the plot, but by emotional resonance. • Meaning is created through decoding based on recognition, allowing the viewer to project their emotional memories into the visual series. • Communication avoids didactic explanations, reducing cognitive resistance and enhancing intuitive engagement.
Emotional Structure (according to Bart’s «Fragments of a Lover’s Speech»)
Four dominant types of fragmented thinking structure filming:
1. Neutrality / Detachment — emotional suspension, visual restraint, minimal gestures. 2. Skinlessness / Vulnerability — gentleness, open emotional presence, tactile sensitivity. 3. Drama / Tragedy — tension, resistance, grief, expressive excess. 4. Celebration / Lightness — relaxation, joy, natural madness, aesthetic freedom.
Each mode becomes a guide in a consistent system of stylistics, posing, location, and rhythm.
Production Approach
Dynamics Shooting follows the principle of dis-cursus — movement without a goal. The model is captured in the transition from one state to another, which emphasizes emotional anxiety.
An accident The sequence of frames refuses linearity. Emotional states appear suddenly, reflecting the involuntary nature of inner thoughts.
Changing locations Locations act as emotional enhancers, not as storytelling scenes. There is no causal relationship between the spaces; they co-exist as parallel emotional environments.
Casting strategy • One model provides the psychological focus and continuity of the inner voice that Roland Barthes is talking about. • The androgynous image eliminates fixed identity markers, allowing the character to function as a universal speaker position that resonates with every viewer.
Styling as a communication tool • Visual unity reinforces the idea of one subject in different emotional states. • Styling adapts to the environment, preserving the authenticity of everyday life. • Each image works as an emotional signifier, correlated with a specific cognitive fragment.
Posturing and body language • Natural posing reduces the distance between performance and reality. • Soft, flowing lines support the love theme. • Body language is adjusted depending on the location and image, maintaining semiotic consistency for the full disclosure of different states.
The system is postproduction
Personnel selection • The priority is the emotional significance, not the iconicity of the image. • Visual integrity is maintained throughout the series. • Clean compositions minimize distraction and support affective perception.
Color strategy Each image has its own color code, but remains within a single palette, which allows you to differentiate emotions without breaking the general field.
Image organization • Multiple frames for each type of thinking, striving to fully reveal each story. • Variations of the layout (scale, white field) enhance the perception of rhythm and allow you to expand the frames. • Transitions between frames, performed compositionally, using a lighting solution or a color code, emphasize the cyclicity inherent in the theme of everyday life.
Typography as a cognitive guideline • Miniature typography does not dominate the frame. • A one-line text acts as a cognitive label, not a message. • Quotations from Barthes simplify the interpretation of the topic without limiting it. • The location of the text directs attention to the key elements of the composition.
The result of communication The project functions as a system with low visual noise and high emotional stress. He points out that fashion photography can go beyond advertising superficiality, working as an emotional lever.
By integrating visual structure with cognitive and emotional theory, photography enhances brand perception through depth, sensitivity, and intellectual authenticity — without direct explanation.
Professional value The shoot demonstrates how fashion production can function as a cultural interpretation, positioning the project in the context of reflective, conceptual visual communication rather than trending images.
Communication Theory Basis
Building on our reflection that design and contemporary art are active systems of communication rather than neutral aesthetic objects, the presentations for Fragments d’un discours amoureux apply communication theory as a practical method of design.
The general audience presentation is based on Uses and Gratifications Theory and also embraces the logic of Selective Exposure: The project does not impose a fixed narrative, but rather offers emotional fragments for viewers to engage with according to their own motivation-aesthetic pleasure, emotional recognition, identity confirmation, or reflection. Communication will be effective because the audience selects, interprets, and emotionally completes the message rather than passively consuming it.
This conception also reveals McLuhan’s thought that the medium is the message. The fragmented visual structure and use of everyday locations, soft rhythm, and minimalistic typography do not operate neutrally but as a communicative act. Their interaction by the viewer forms the message itself, reinforcing the idea that the audience is not external to communication but embedded in it.
The presentation in front of the professional audience follows the encoding-decoding theory and semiotic models discussed during the course. Emotional states are intentionally encoded by means of visual signs-styling, body language, color, spatial shifts, and sequencing-while decoding is allowed to stay open and depend on the viewer’s cultural, emotional, and ideological context. This explains why the project resists linear storytelling and instead operates through accumulation and repetition, mirroring the structure of internal thought rather than narrative logic.
Cultivation Theory, meanwhile, advances the project’s communicative form. In its consistent visual grammar and recurring emotional beats, the shoot cumulatively creates for a context in which fashion would become aligned with introspection, vulnerability, and the ordinary emotional moment, rather than spectacle or performance. Over time, such repetition creates an expectations and naturalizes one different modality of fashion communication.
Finally, the project is closely related to the principles of dialogical communication as depicted in class. Instead of a sold meaning or lifestyle, the shoot invites interpretation and reflection by considering the audience as an equal actor in creating meaning. Therefore, in that way, communication does not address the consumer but builds up a reflective public space around common emotional experience
Maria Mordvinova, Olga Solovyova «Communication Theory: Bridging Academia and Practice», Smart LMS [online course], 2025
Fragments d’un discours amoureux // HSE Design URL: https://hsedesign.ru/project/3d58df5b07a1451ba3aeb4f3093948cb (дата обращения: 13.12.2025).
