Design as Conversation

There are many ways in which the human being can communicate, just as there are many languages that exist in our world. Who's to say that design is not a form of communication, because everyday in our modern world design is becoming more important at sending specific messages when presented to an audience.
Not only is it a way to transmit information, but it allows the same subject, the same topic, or the same design piece to invoke an infinite amount of ideas, debates, and conversations. Just as a linguist would point out, there are an infinite number of possible sentences to be created, and if in a language that we understand, we can decipher the sentence even if we have never heard it before. "I cook frozen branches on sundays because thats when the bird sits on my windowsill" is a sentence you have never heard before and yet you still understand it.
 Design is the same way.
Design provides us with an endless source of information that can always, in one form or another, be understood and interpreted. The difference between design and languages, is that we use our senses as our communication tools instead of our mouth and tongue. Sign language is the closest "language" in its formal definition that bridges the "language of design" to the "speaking languages." When we experience design, we internalize it and make judgments and inferences about what we see, touch, smell, feel, and hear. Toys"R"Us is not going to have the same font design as Coach, because a children's toy store needs to imply fun, happy, and playful ideas where as a top brand design label is going to want to be sophisticated and chic.
Next time you are eating cereal, look at the box, and ask yourself what kind of a message is the design on the box sending and you might be surprised to realize that what you thought you "knew" about the cereal was not being told to you by the words on the box, but the design on the box.