Visuality, Professionalism, and Branding: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Logos of Selected Specialized Institutions in Nigeria

Introduction

The change in discursive practices of branding of logos of higher institutions and the continual strive for public attention amidst competitive interest is strongly entwined with the bigger economic and political changes in the world. From funding issues to demands for information by seekers, higher institutions have continued to deploy different strategies to distinguish themselves in the academic market. Considered the “pinnacle of learning and intellectual factory” (O’Halloran, 20011), the higher institution aforetime was independent of any form of advertising or branding strategies. The performance yardstick was contingent on the exploit of their products (students) in the practical and professional world. Thus, public universities were indifferent to branding and marketing as promotional value.

However, with the proliferation of private universities and colleges of learning, it has become imperative for public institutions to strive for visibility to maintain status quo and improve on existing services regardless of hiccups of low funding and poor status of facilities amidst other negative indicators. In the past, public universities built “a distinct brand personality” by providing quality education and the names of the well-known universities were considered sufficient (Randall, 1997: 67). Consequently, public higher institutions remained largely “insulated” from marketization aspects until the past decades (Zhang, 2017: 64). In recent time, the role of public universities has extended to incorporate business ideologies which have significantly necessitated marketization and branding activities of which language (image text inclusive) is critical.

Language appeals to complex cognitive abilities and forms the way humans engage in daily communication among one another in all endeavours. Communication is a means of interaction between a person (sender) and another person (receiver) through language or extra-linguistic elements such as symbols, signs, visual images, objects, gestures, diagrams, drawings and technology such as social media, etc. According to Ademilokun and Olateju (2015), globalisation and robust access to digital space reduced over-dependency on verbal expressions and paved way for the utilisation of multimodal communication in the modern world. On the basis for intense interest in multimodal analysis, Lirola (2006) affirms that the shift to multimodality in contemporary communicative practices owes to the fact that “our society is influenced by the presence of new texts which are clearly characterised by the increasing dominance of the visual mode”. It is also obvious that pictures convey information more effectively and efficiently than a word do (Tahririan & Sadri, 2013). This discursive advancement necessitates the study of multimodalities in linguistics.

Multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) refers to making enquiring about texts construction through various communication modes. According to O’Halloran, Tan, Smith and Podlasov (2009), multimodal discourse is “a form of communication involving multiple semiotic resources such as language (spoken and written), gesture, dress, architecture, gaze, camera angle, etc. MDA focuses on the theory and analysis of semiotic resources and meaning expansions that occur as semiotic choices combine in multimodal phenomena. It is also concerned with the design, production and distribution of multimodal resources in social settings. Many scholars have given their foundations on multimodal research in the 1980s and 1990s drawing upon Halliday’s (1978, 1994, and 2004) Socio-semiotic approach to model the meaning potential of words, sounds and images as sets of interrelated system and structures through which we make choices. To this end, this study engages a multimodal discourse analysis of logos of select specialised higher institutions in Nigeria with a view to showcasing their communicative values, appropriateness and effectiveness and semiotic implications to the goals of the educational establishments.