This paper deals with design semiotics, focuses on product design (light design) from the perspectives of social semiotics (van Leeuwen, 2005; Kress a van Leeuwen, 2006), multimodality (Kress, 2010) and product design (Norman, 1988, 2004a; Monö, 1997), and perceive design as a multimodal process of choices as well as a result of materialization of meanings. The theoretical chapters are dedicated to definitions of particular approaches and terms, which are applied within the empirical parts afterwards. These rely on the theories mentioned above and the design phases established by Riley (2003, 2004), which we linked with given theoretical approaches (the discourse phase with social semiotics; the conception phase with multimodality and emotional design; the inception phase with multimodality; and the reception phase with social semiotics and product design). Semi-structured interviews were held with three designers engaged in light design - Jan Plecháč, Jakub Pollág and Karel Matějka. The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare practices of designers from their own perspectives, considering intended product meanings (purposes), used modes and highlighting different design levels. Key words Social semiotics, product design, emotional design, multimodality, materialization

(English) Multimodality in Spanish Language This research work analyses the language of the social networks used in the Hispanic environment from the point of view of multimodality. In the first part, the theoretical framework of the study is presented, i. e. cognitive linguistics. In addition, the fundamental theories linked to this framework are explained, namely mental spaces, conceptual blending, conceptual metaphor or construal, which are later applied to our object of study: the language of social networks. Likewise, the concept of multimodality, its origins, and its current utility in the field of linguistics are analysed. In the second part, the variety of the Spanish language used online is investigated, with focus on the elements that present the multimodal character. The linguistic material, which constitutes a corpus of study, has been extracted in its entirety from Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The corpus has been updated and appropriate to the fundamental purpose pursued in this study: to demonstrate that communication mediated by the social networks is, mainly, multimodal, since it has its own resources, belonging to various semiotic channels, which allow any user to achieve any communicative purpose sought. Key words: Spanish language, cognitive linguistics, multimodality, social...

Visual Question Answering (VQA) is a recently proposed multimodal task in the general area of machine learning. The input to this task consists of a single image and an associated natural language question, and the output is the answer to that question. In this thesis we propose two incremental modifications to an existing model which won the VQA Challenge in 2016 using multimodal compact bilinear pooling (MCB), a novel way of combining modalities. First, we added the language attention mechanism, and on top of that we introduce an image attention mechanism focusing on objects detected in the image ("region attention"). We also experiment with ways of combining these in a single end- to-end model. The thesis describes the MCB model and our extensions and their two different implementations, and evaluates them on the original VQA challenge dataset for direct comparison with the original work. 1

1 Abstract This master's thesis deals with a genre expectation from an advertising photography in magazines from 1970 up to the present. The intent of a theoretical part of the master's thesis is to characterize the advertising photography and compare it with other photographic genres such as journalistic, documentary or artistic photography, because each of those genres is characterized by different modes and so, each carries considerably diverse expectations. And thus, an attention is paid especially to a photography composition within the scope of those individual genres. However, in connection with the comparison of the advertising and journalistic photography, I also focus on regulations, which limit these genres. Further, the aim of this thesis is to map the limits of the genre of the advertising photography and depict, with the use of the particular examples, what stereotypes, prejudices and standards are used in the creation of the advertising photographs and how it ends up, when they are broken. Nevertheless, in the theoretical part I also deal with it, what does it mean a term illustrative photography and where this term is used. The practical part of the master's thesis makes it the goal to clarify, thanks to a research method of a qualitative analysis, what female readers of the lifestyle...

The Diploma thesis is focused on marketing and semiotics and the use of these two fields combined. In the course of the thesis, we will deal with the analysis of single visual marketing modes and the overall impact on perception of the brand and also its ́ building by linking these elements. In the thesis, we will focus on the Gunter Kress ́ theory of multimodality and, in this context, we will focus on the contents of the Brand manual, which is the key to brand building. Attention will be paid to semiotic analysis of logos, utilization of images and photos, colors and fonts and other components important for creating a visual marketing strategy. In the empirical section, two similar brands will be introduced, on which the single modes will be demonstrated and analyzed. Although the two brands are similar to each other, one has a clearly recognizable brand identity, while the other brand is failing. Also, the second brand obviously does not follow the Brand manual. By analyzing and comparing the visual content of these two brands, we will be able to detect errors that may be critical to brand building and may have a negative impact on the perception of the potential clients with the result of brand extinction. In the result of the thesis, we should be able to confirm the importance of using...

The Diploma thesis is focused on marketing and semiotics and the use of these two fields combined. In the course of the thesis, we will deal with the analysis of single visual marketing modes and the overall impact on perception of the brand and also its ́ building by linking these elements. In the thesis, we will focus on the Gunter Kress ́ theory of multimodality and, in this context, we will focus on graphic design rules, which are reflected within each mode and which can deliver quality and consistent communication. Attention will be paid to semiotic analysis of colors, fonts, utilization of images and photos and other components important for creating a visual marketing strategy. In the empirical section, two similar brands will be introduced, on which the single modes will be demonstrated and analyzed. Although the two brands are similar to each other, one has a clearly recognizable brand identity, while the other brand is failing. By analyzing and comparing the visual content of these two brands, we will be able to detect errors that may be critical to brand building and may have a negative impact on the perception of the potential clients with the result of brand extinction. In the result of the thesis, we should be able to confirm the importance of using semiotic techniques in marketing...

This thesis deals with the multimodality of verbal-visual texts. The theoretical section of the thesis presents multimodality as a phenomenon of the digital age and a research approach. Attention is also focused on the image as a text and the intermodal relationships between verbal and visual representation. The practical section of the thesis is devoted to the analysis of heterogeneous news texts within the discourse on drought in the Czech Republic, focusing on the mutual position of the image and the text and their news values.