This state of the art account of research and theorizing brings together multimodality, communication and learning through detailed analyses of sign makers and their meaning making in museums, hospitals, schools, and the home environment. By analysing video recordings, photographs, screenshots, and print materials, Jeff Bezemer and Gunther Kress go well beyond the comfortable domains of traditional sites of (social) semiotic and multimodal research. They steer away from spurious invention and naming of ever more newly exciting domains, focusing instead on fundamentals in assembling a set of tools for current tasks: namely describing and analyzing learning and communication in the contemporary world as one integrated field. The theory outlined in the book is grounded in the authors' wide spread of their empirical investigations. Each chapter evaluates the work that is being done and has been done, challenging accepted common sense notions and standing much of it on its head.With extensive illustrations and many examples presented to show the reach and applicability of the theory, this book is essential reading for all those working in multimodality, semiotics, Applied Linguistics and related areas. Additional resources are available at http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415709620/