Lyudmyla Zaporozhtseva, PhD
I decode the cultural codes AI hasn’t cracked yet
to inspire people and brands see the world differently
WHY CULTURE MATTERS
I’ve spent my life noticing what people read between the lines.
Nobody reads a brand directly. We all read it through the codes of our culture, usually without noticing. “Radiant skin” means porcelain-pale in Seoul and sun-kissed in Rome. A melody feels warm in one market and cheap in another. The number 4 can sink a launch in Shanghai and mean nothing in Paris.
AI can generate a thousand images in a minute, but it doesn’t know any of this. That’s the part I love: finding those invisible codes and turning them into decisions a team can actually act on.
Culture is infinite, but it can be modelled
That’s the principle behind my method and behind every project I take on. Today the signs around your brand come not only from people but from machines, which now produce images and texts at a scale no culture has ever seen, and get culture wrong in very predictable ways. Yet every person your brand speaks to still sees the world through a model of their own. My job is to reconstruct that model, so your brand can find its place in it.
WHAT I DO
  • Cultural code research
    I help you understand what your category is really saying.
    I look at advertising, packaging, visual culture and media the way an archaeologist looks at a dig site. I map the codes your audience already reads — the ones everyone uses, and the new ones quietly pointing to what’s next.
  • Market entry and localisation
    I help you enter a new market without getting lost in translation including audiobranding.
    Before you launch in China, the Gulf, Africa or Europe, I build a cultural map with you: what to show, what to say, what to avoid, and why. I help your brand be heard, not only seen.
  • AI content audit
    I help you use AI without losing your meaning.
    Generative AI loves the average — and its stereotypes. I review what the machine makes for you and catch the cultural defaults before your audience does.
  • Training for teams
    I teach your team to see culture as environment.
    Teaching is the other half of my practice. I run executive modules, workshops and talks for agencies, brands and institutions — in English, online or in person. I’d love to do the same for your team, from brief to insight.
My background
I’ve studied law, music, culture studies, philosophy and semiotics, each time following the same question from a different side. Law taught me how precisely words can bind. Music taught me how sound carries meaning without words. Semiotics gave me the tools to bring it all together and to read culture as a system of meanings.
Education
The community I belong to
I’ve always believed semiotics grows best in conversation, and I’m part of that conversation every day, as a teacher and as a researcher.
I’m a Professor of Communication Studies. My students voted me Best Professor of the Year in 2024 and 2026, and over the years I’ve created eight courses and supervised more than sixty theses. I’ve also taught as a visiting professor in Olomouc and Tallinn.
I’m a member of the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS-AIS) and the French Semiotic Association (AFS), and I regularly speak at semiotic conferences and congresses. In 2026 I spoke about AI at the French Semiotic Association Congress in Paris and at Inheriting Eco in Bologna. Earlier I coordinated Semiofest, the international conference on applied semiotics, in Tallinn (2016), and organised a panel at the World Congress of Semiotics in Thessaloniki (2022).
Tell me about your challenge


I’d love to hear what you’re working on. I work with brands directly and as a partner to agencies, across Europe and beyond.

Write to me: semiogeek@gmail.com · LinkedIn