Martin Krampen (March 9, 1928, in Siegen – June 18, 2015, in Ulm) was a leading German semiotician, semiotics Professor in Göttingen.
[2]: 257 In 1953 Krampen began studying graphic design and visual communication at the Hochschule für Gestaltung.
[3] After graduating from the school with a diploma in, he went on to obtain his PhD in Visual Communications from Michigan State University in 1962.
[2]: 259 He was the University of Waterloo's first full-time research associate, where he worked alongside professor George Soulis to study the influence of design on industry.
[7]: 132 Donald Favareau notes that Krampen's 1981 publication "Phytosemiotics" in Semiotica is referenced in nearly every introductory overview of the field and that his work is responsible for expanding the scope of Thomas Sebeok's zoosemiotics info the broader study of signs in relation to living organisms.