This thesis offers one step in a direction that will help consumers make better choices in response to a growing demand for a more sustainable living (Grant 2008, Pollan 2008). In a world of seismic economic, environmental and social change the need for a more sustainable way of behaving is rapidly becoming a priority for mere survival (Porritt 2006). Indeed, it has been suggested that the collapse of economic growth in 2008 has primarily been the result of a dependence on outmoded models of consumption (Hamilton 2003, James 2008). The first section of the thesis documents as a narrative the shift from a label design, which is the result of a research paper, to the launch of a food brand within a university community, which is the commercial outcome of research. The second section of the thesis is the study that examines a nascent label design consisting of a list of ingredients as semiotic triggers that inform the consumer about the product at the point of purchase. The methodology is drawn from mediated discourse analysis (Scollon 2005, Norris & Jones 2005) and multimodal discourse analysis where each mode is viewed as a system of representation with rules and regularities attached to it (Kress & van Leeuwen 2006). I focus on the nascent shift in modal values of packaging design within the site of engagement of a supermarket. The site of engagement is where mediated actions at moments in time and space occur (Norris & Jones 2005). These mediated actions are the focus of attention of the relevant participants (Scollon 2005), and operate at different levels of attention (Norris 2004). The third section contains the appendices.

The work focuses on the analysis of the poetics of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Invitation to a Beheading in terms of its cultural context. Specifically deals with its relation to the Soviet theatrical avant-garde, with mythopoetic symbolism and early avant-garde. We approach to the novel as a parody of the post-revolutionary avant-garde Soviet theater experiments. Special attention is paid to the fact that due to the theatralization of the text, i.e. assimilation of the novel space with the theatricals, diegesis of Invitation to a Beheading is divided into two equal opposing worlds, each of which represents particular poetics. World built around main character of Cincinnatus is comparable to symbolism, namely to the symbol and symbolistic perception of Andrei Bely. The central principle of this reality is semiotization of the world. The surrounding fictional world creates its opposite as it is shaped by the principle of desemiotization which - as a central aspect of formalistic-futuristic avant- garde - systematically dismantles hero's world. However neither of these worlds is winning. In the end it is the synthesis, which helps the hero get emancipated from the novel's world. The Invitation to a Beheading can therefore be interpreted as original artist's world manifesto which through presentation and...