Can firmonyms be viewed in their design context?

Abstract

This article presents the author’s conclusions on firmonyms (chrematonyms) located in urban space, drawn partly on the basis of the object-oriented philosophy. The material in the form of photographs of shop signs was collected during the field exploration, mostly in Poznań. The design context of firmonyms is based on relevant communicative functions they fulfil as described in the theory of business communication (see Wacław Šmid). New design context, which, in the author’s opinion, should constitute a separate category in research on proper names that blend into our “urban (linguistic) landscape”, can be a starting point for conclusions concerning aesthetics, utility or simplicity of form and can underline marketing or linguistic assets as well as problems of onomastic texts. The author also presents another methodological suggestion based on the word-picture composition created in the 16^th century, i.e. an emblem. It can be used in the onomastic-design aspect, using literary terms such as lemma, imago or subscription as components of the emblem, connecting the image with the text. The above-presented research problem shall be the scope of further studies in the field of marketing and design in its broad sense, bordering on onomastics.