Stainless Steel as an attribute of Art, Signage, Architecture and Landscaping

A Distinct Semiotics

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-964-3_13How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Stainless Steel; Signage Design; Public Art Installations; Modern Architecture; Semiotics; Signification; Communication; Aesthetics

Abstract

Stainless Steel as a material leaves a special imprint in the minds and hearts of people. The signage industry has played a prominent role in the building industry by providing architectural signage for ease in navigation, walkability and branding. This industry sector has ensured continued supply of safety and information signs for construction sites. In this context, the stainless steel signages are popular and symbolic of durability, resilience, professionalism, trust, customizable options, longevity, high-end timeless aesthetics. Likewise, in art, architecture, and landscaping it has been a unique trendsetter - valued for its resistance to corrosion, aesthetic flexibility, sleek quality, modern appearance and reflective properties; making it versatile across applications from the monumental sculptures to low-maintenance building elements. This paper analyzes the semiotics of selected case studies of stainless steel used in selected art installations, architectural letterings outside iconic buildings as well as signage designs from India. The insights highlight the meanings that represent denotative as well connotative meanings of ‘stainless steel’ as a material for functionality (in case of signage case studies); high-end aesthetics (in case of art installations and architectural letterings) and as visual attribute of landscaping in the case studies decoded. These semiotic meanings detail out the application of sign categories: iconicity, indices and symbolism in the visual treatments as well as fabrication approaches undertaken to utilize the properties of stainless steel to craft the final design forms. Proposed is a conceptual framework (mapped over the established Semiotic Square) for the students and practitioners of art, architecture and design to plan their ‘form follows function’ methodologies based on the science of signs and signification - Semiotics; in order to decode and implement unique communication and material-based innovation possibilities with Stainless Steel in their targeted design outcomes as part of projects.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Nanki Nath
AU  - Neeraja Lugani Sethi
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/31
TI  - Stainless Steel as an attribute of Art, Signage, Architecture and Landscaping
BT  - Proceedings of the Conference Series on Sustainable Architecture Circular Economy (SACE 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 273
EP  - 301
SN  - 3005-155X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-964-3_13
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-964-3_13
ID  - Nath2025
ER  -