Creative translation as a method for investigation was an idea systematically explored by the Brazilian poet and translator Haroldo de Campos. According to Campos' approach, creative translation corresponds to the transcreation of a multi-level system of constraints, "selected" and revealed by the target system. We intend to describe this process as diagrammatic (sensu Peirce), in which the physicality of its source and target systems have the ontology of a relation. Hence our approach is a tentative association of Jakobson's concept of intersemiotic translation, with De Campos' notion of transcreation based on Peirce's notion of diagrams. We intend to describe it by taking the following arguments into consideration: I. Intersemiotic translation can be described as fundamentally triadic phenomenon, that involves the selection and interpretation of properties and methods from one semiotic system to be translated into another semiotic system, bearing the production of an interpretative effect in the latter, that is analogous to the interpretative effect produced by the former. II. Intersemiotic translation is a method of investigation. As a mainly iconic process, it produces a sign that signifies by means of its own qualities and structures: this is a well-known property of iconic signs, namely operational criterion of icons.