Stars in Our Constellation: Colette Sensier
Luminous is thrilled to partner on projects with Colette Sensier, expert in Semiotics and Cultural Analysis
Colette Sensier is a semiotician, cultural researcher, and strategist with nine years of experience in the field. Her career includes time at Space Doctors and Canopy Insight, as well as independent consulting on projects for global clients including Google, Coca-Cola, Netflix, and Unilever. Over the past three years, she has been instrumental in developing Luminous’s biosemiotic offerings, starting with an analysis of changing rituals and routines post-pandemic and their impact on treatment attitudes and adherence. Colette specializes in biosemiotics and soma-semiotics, and collaborates with creatives — sometimes as one half of the semiotic branding studio See Say Studio. Before entering semiotics, she worked in qualitative research, journalism, and charity communications. Colette holds degrees from the universities of Cambridge, East Anglia, and New Orleans, and is also a published poet, with a book, Skinless, published by Eyewear Press.
Q & A with Colette Sensier
Q: What experience and expertise do you bring to Luminous?
A: Since beginning my semiotics journey in 2015, I’ve tackled a wide variety of semiotic and cultural analysis projects for global brands across diverse sectors. Early on, I had the privilege of working with commercial semiotics pioneer Malcolm Evans — learning from one of the best. Every project since has been unique; there’s no set template. For the past four years, as an independent consultant, I’ve taken the lead in shaping and directing projects. My longstanding interest in the semiotics of senses and emotions allows me to bring deep understanding and fresh insights to Luminous’ exploration of the biopsychosocial self. My background in qualitative research further enhances my ability to integrate human-centered thinking into semiotic frameworks, creating comprehensive, methodology-agnostic projects that deeply explore the cultural meanings and holistic experiences of health, illness, and the body.
Q: What motivates you about Luminous and its mission?
A: I’m proud and excited to design semiotic and cultural analysis projects with Luminous, applying my extensive experience in semiotics to a sector that is so new to this type of thinking. Semiotics expands every client’s perspective by combining "outside-in" analysis of broad culture with "inside-out" verbal, sensory, and biological detail. Being a pioneer in Luminous’ semiotic offerings means that my practice evolves alongside Luminous’s, deepening my thinking on the body in culture. I love experimenting with new biosemiotic methodologies and working with diverse professionals, from biosemiotic academics to DEI professionals to research scientists.
Q: What types of projects do you find most rewarding, and why?
A: Healthcare, as a sector, can have a rather rigid approach to language and the concepts it describes. There’s a (usually unconscious) gatekeeping of concepts that have a very specific meaning to healthcare professionals, but much broader, constantly evolving, spoken and unspoken meanings to ordinary people. I’m talking about concepts like "growth," "obesity," "risk," even "patient" or "consultation." Interrogating those concepts semiotically helps us break down barriers of communication between scientists, healthcare providers, and the people they treat. In the last few decades, we’ve realized that adherence to a strict "medical model" can be disempowering. Entering a doctor’s office, people suddenly become "patients," stripped of the context of their culture and relationships, and are expected to communicate in a way that is second nature to the healthcare provider but foreign to them. My favorite projects are those designed to make healthcare communications and provision feel relevant and meaningful to the people who most need help—campaigns that let people know that acting on their symptoms or continuing treatment doesn’t mean losing their individuality or social identity.
Q: What are the big challenges & opportunities you’re seeing related to patients, life sciences, and impact?
A: “Dr. Internet” is often spoken of with a sigh by healthcare professionals and researchers, but it’s shorthand for an exciting mass democratization of health awareness. People today, connected seamlessly to healthcare knowledge and to each other, have unprecedented power to express and interrogate their own physical and psychological experiences in the language that feels right for them. Of course, this leads to a huge amount of misinformation, as we saw dramatically during the Covid-19 pandemic. But it’s important to listen to the meanings and emotions behind health "takes" that seem inaccurate or even outlandish—because then you can identify the real barriers between the healthcare industries and bodies, and the people they need to reach. As a woman and trans ally with a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis, I know many people who’ve been gaslit and ignored due to HCP assumptions and biases. Working on projects concerning neglected diseases like sickle cell or Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome shows how disastrous the effect on people’s lives can be when healthcare communicators fail to understand the deep cultural history and complex power dynamics surrounding illness and the body.
Q: What is a quote or mantra that guides you?
A: I always say, "define your terms"! It’s something that was drummed into me as an English Literature student and is still central to my practice. Euphemism, language policing, cliché, and assumption often obscure the real cultural change and diversity expressed through complex, dynamic terms and concepts. When we really think about what an utterance means, has meant, and is starting to mean, we can design products and communications that feel urgent and real.
About Luminous
Luminous is a consultancy that partners with global life sciences organizations, meaningfully connecting lab and life to achieve better outcomes for patients, business, and society. Founded in 2005, we empower our clients with deep and revealing insights that can be leveraged across the development pathway through to commercialization. Our work drives healthcare solutions that are truly patient-centric.