The Art Nouveau effect on advertising: A semiotic study of poster designs in the years 1889–1899

The term semiotics, which comes from the French roots of linguistique and semiologie, is a branch of science that studies, makes sense of indicators and divides them into varieties within itself Semiotics is the process of making sense and examining all kinds of elements that will create meaning. Indicators are made meaningful by looking at their illustrative, shown, plain meaning and side meanings. The process of making sense varies from person to person, from culture to culture, and from society to society. In the process of making sense, there are many factors that affect making sense, such as a person's educational level, the society in which he lives, personal and cultural characteristics. Charles Peirce, Ferdinand de Saussure, Roland Barthes are important theorists who have contributed to semiotic study. Art Nouveau, which is an influential art movement in Europe, has gained a high momentum in many areas such as painting, sculpture, architecture and graphics, especially in graphic arts. When the examples of advertising banners in graphic arts are examined, the Art Nouveau effect is seen. Jules Cheret, Alphonse Mucha, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec are some of the names who pioneered poster studies. Artists stylized and used plant, animal and female figures in their poster works during this period. The stylized typefaces in the poster works have been created with typographic arrangements by establishing a natural, aesthetic balance. Within the scope of this thesis, the examples of advertising posters designed by Toulouse Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha and Jules Chéret in 1889 – 1899 based on Roland Barthes' semiotic theory were examined from a semiotic point of view. The semiotic examinations for each poster are explained by making sense of the data obtained by looking at the meanings of the plain meaning and side meanings shown, shown, and described. Keywords: Poster, Art Nouveau, Semiotics, Advertising.