DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Why study this subject?
To become a thoughtful, effective communicator.
Every job has some aspect in which communication skills are used.
Many formats, many methods are used to present information to a targeted audience,
and in an effort to get that audience to respond.
Effective use of visuals makes a difference.
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Mayberry Lane
Organic Produce
Come pick your own!
Open 9-6 weekdays
Mayberry Lane Road
Plainfield, VT
802-999-5555
Mayberry Lane
• Organic Produce •
Come pick your own!
Open 9-6 weekdays
Mayberry Lane Road
Plainfield, VT
802-999-5555
Mayberry Lane
Mayberry Lane
Mayberry Lane
• Organic Produce •
• Organic Produce •
• Organic Produce •
Come pick your own!
Open 9-6 weekdays
Mayberry Lane Road
Plainfield, VT
802-999-5555
Come pick your own!
Open 9-6 weekdays
Mayberry Lane Road
Plainfield, VT
802-999-5555
Come pick your own!
Open 9-6 weekdays
Mayberry Lane Road
Plainfield, VT
802-999-5555
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Which ad holds your interest?
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
A survey showed the one on the left had more lasting impact.
We may pay more attention to imagery that is:
easy to read, is relevant to us in some way or has some emotional impact.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Information
and Culture
Complexity
Competition
Engaging the
senses
Dependency on the
visual sense
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication is a process of
sending and receiving messages using
images.
Visual literacy can be defined as the “ability to
construct meaning from visual images”.
Visual literacy
- a set of skills used to interpret the content, social
impact, purpose and audience.
- judging the accuracy, validity and worth of images.
- influenced by the experiences of each individual.
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Aldous Huxley was an author keenly
aware of how one sees and
understands the world.
Perhaps you have read his book
Brave New World – a philosophical
novel about the future.
He had a retinal disease from his
early years on. He was interested in
what seeing involved, especially in
relation to thinking and processing
information.
He felt the the visual process was a
cycle of sensing, selecting and
perceiving - in order to better know
the world and increase knowledge.
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
The
Visual STRATEGIES
Communication Circle
Dance culture
DESIGN
in a visual
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
The more you know; the more you sense (notice)
The more you sense; the more you select (you will pay attention more)
The more you select; the more you perceive (you will understand more)
The more you perceive; the more you remember (memory is enhanced)
The more you remember; the more you learn (compare and contrast)
The more you learn; the more you know (use more of what you see)
Would you notice this
walking down the street?
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
sensing, selecting and perceiving
An effective designer studies these areas in order to
make messages that an audience reads, comprehends
and responds to consistently.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
The first stage is sensing – using the
senses to detect signals from the
immediate environment.
Selecting is the next stage – a conscious,
intellectual act where one chooses to pay
attention to something.
Perceiving is making sense of what is
selected – that is, make meaning.
This is an active process – not mere
observation, but intentional.
As Henry David Thoreau said “The
question is not what you look at, but what
you see”.
If one learns how to ‘read’ visuals or
becomes visually literate, one can
continually build on the knowledge that
provides – it is a cycle.
Consider the baseball enthusiast - who sees, or
experiences, more of the game than one who has no idea
what the game involves.
When we see new images, we make new associations and comparisons with previously stored mental pictures.
We engage or pay attention to communication that is accessible, entertaining or threatening.
We are wired to respond to signals because it is part of our survival strategy as human beings.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Many of us depend on
the information we get
from sight.
But sight is dependent
on light. Without it, we
cannot see.
We refer to light as
that which provides
information as well as
illumination…
“let me shed some light
on the matter”
“don’t keep us in the
dark - tell us your news!”
In experiencing our
world via light, we also
assign meaning or
significance to the type
of light during that
experience.
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Light in an image can add
information that influences how we
read the image.
This film noir image is intended to
create a dramatic effect that adds to
the experience of the story.
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Think of all the visual
messages you have
experienced – and what is
your repertoire of
memories… what do you
remember and why?
You attached
meaningfulness to them your brain processed the
information and retained it
as being important to you.
You process information
directly via sensory
experiences, via your own
mental activity (imagination,
etc…) and via mediated
imagery (print or screen – tv,
computer, movies).
Cognition is the mental faculty or
process of acquiring knowledge by
the use of reasoning, intuition or
perception.
We recognize (re-cognize) images
because they have a form that triggers
an association stored in our brains – a
physical or emotional connection.
Non verbal communication is learned early on and becomes part of the visual language we use everyday.
Some body languages, such as signing, are specialized systems used for particular audiences.
Facial expression and hands are used to signal a range of meanings.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
A design or composition has information carried by the form of the design.
We read the visual cues, or parts of the design, to understand the purpose of the design.
If the composition is well composed, it is easier to understand this.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
We can best perceive a design that is well organized. A design that is composed well has a structure
that is easily understood and experienced.
Designers call good form “Gestalt”. This is a term that came from German psychology in the 1900s. It
is our innate tendencies that see as "belonging together" elements that look alike (called "similarity
grouping"), are close together ("proximity grouping") or have structural economy ("good continuation").
This symbol is easily read due
to the organization of the
figure.
We ‘fill in’ the missing
information or do what is
called ‘closure’.
The faces are implied, not fully
described. The relationship of
parts makes the faces
recognizable.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Because it has organized parts, we see and re-cognize the bike as a whole versus a series of parts.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
The earliest attempts to record and
send messages depended on making
pictures.
Oral culture also came before written
culture.
Storytellers passed on the lore of the
culture.
Speech itself is a kind of code, a way of
expressing perceived experience in
sounds that have conventional
meanings.
All the forerunners of writing were
based on pictures--what is called
"pictographic," or writing that is pictorial
in character.
Eventually, words came to be
expressed in conventional signs.
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
As humans, we have developed languages to represent information.
Images have always helped carry information, and continue to be a major form of communication that is easily and
quickly understood by a wide range of people.
Images are used to persuade, inform and entertain.
It is important to understand the intention behind the use of images in communication.
We learn to read different types of imagery.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
There are many types of imagery to use, each with its own potential to carry information.
Lettering/wording Photographs Drawings/illustrations Symbols Charts, maps or graphs Cartoons
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Some images become
well known due to the
type of image or
subject matter.
They are used in a
range of
communication to
enhance the response
to the message.
The Scream by Edvard Munch
The bleak, agonizing figure depicted in Munch’s
1893 canvas resonates with meaning in the wired
world of the 1990s.
In recent years, The Scream has joined The Mona
Lisa as one of art history’s most reproduced icons.
A new ad campaign launched by the owner of the
M&M's brand aims to make eating dark chocolate a
scream. M&M's is offering 2 million dark chocolate
M&M's for the return of "The Scream," a painting by
Edvard Munch that was stolen from the Munch Museum
in Oslo, Norway, in 2004.
The campaign accompanies the permanent addition of
dark chocolate candies to the M&M's product line, which
was announced earlier this month.
The campaign aims to bring some fun into the dark
chocolate category, which is perceived to be more
serious, Masterfoods said.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
The symbols used in visual communication
are not a fixed vocabulary.
The conventions of visual communication
are a combination of universal and
culturally based conventions.
Being visually literate means working
with a combination of syntax and
semantics.
Syntax is the actual form or building blocks
of an image - its structure and organization.
Semantics concern how meaning or
content is created through:
form and structure, context, icons/symbols
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Photographs are used a great deal in visual communication due to their potential.
After thousands of years of seeing the world around them depicted only through paintings, drawings, and sculptures,
humans were amazed by the ability of the first photographs to represent objects or people with the most intricate
detail and realism.
The best-known early use of photography in war was
by Mathew Brady and others in the American Civil
War.
Before the invention of photography, war could be
thought of as a romantic adventure.
But photographs of the brutality of war made people
aware of its reality, so much so that photographs and
newsreels were mostly banned from World War I
because the political and military leaders knew that
allowing the war to be seen might lead to loss of
support for their war efforts.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Different types of media are used to communicate - print, radio, TV, film and more.
Television has been a huge influence on technological and cultural innovations leading toward a visual culture.
TV uses moving photographic and drawn images along with sound, like talking motion pictures.
TV can bring the outer world -- news, entertainment, sports, travelogues, movies-- into our immediate space.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
The importance of TV as a source of visual information became evident in the presidential election of 1960, with the
televised debates between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
Most people who heard these debates on the radio (verbal culture) thought Nixon had won.
But Kennedy looked better than Nixon on TV, and looking better meant that, by the standards of visual
communication, he had won the TV interchange with Nixon.
Now TV coverage or exposure began to be the criterion of existence and value.
Visual presence in this media carries great significance, so it is a primary form of communication for politicians.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
But all use of imagery, especially photographs, leads to questions of ethics and responsibility,
as well as copyright issues - particularly on computers.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Computers were invented as early as
the mid 1940s, but came to full
prominence with the development of
the digital personal computer in the
1970s and '80s.
The computer uses a screen, and in
that it is like television. However, it is
interactive as well.
Imagery can be highly manipulated
and shared globally.
The Internet is highly visual
environment that requires literacy and
word skill for productive use.
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Words and images work together to create a message.
Take a look at this newspaper image.
What sort of picture is this?
Why do you think it was chosen?
What is the photographer trying to convey about the subject?
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
The caption reads: Lake Delgado today: the plane crashed, killing all the occupants
Now, how do you read the image?
The text influences how you read it and the content you derive from this combination.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
This is a two page ad from a popular, general magazine. Look at the visual characteristics and imagery.
DESIGN STRATEGY/analysis
WHAT ASSOCIATIONS ARE MADE?
Color
natural, earthy
blue sky is central—event will be like carefree
summers of the past
creates sense of nostalgia and excitement
warm, neutral tones feel rustic
yellow/orange is soothing, draws you in
“vintage” feel
using guitar color to flow into background color—
color bridges foreground and background
Texture
rugged
gritty
weathered makes you want to relax
old crumpled sheet music
shiny guitar against weather background is flashy,
exciting
Scrap book quality is soothing, idea of memories
to create,
Contrast
Guitar pops out
Lettering is bold, dark and soft
different variations on lighting in images
worn corners of images, soft curves of guitar and
hands
dark on left, lighter on right
large capital letters draw you in, must read.
Images
3 dimensional effect of layering
Images of times gone by
each symbolizes something: hands=friendship, ferris wheel=fun, etc.
all include people
busy-ness of advertisement reflects busy-ness of festivals—fun, loud, entertaining
content of images is important: biker, guitar, old time music
images are preview of event
Feelings:
family fun, relaxation
Excitement, ad feels like an invitation
Let’s consider one visual ‘symbol’:
An apple
Some content/cultural associations:
Healthy
Education - teacher
Evil - the witchs gift
Adam and Eve
Computers
Write a response to the following (to hand in).
Please make sure your full name is written clearly.
How is the imagery used in this book cover?
Consider:
type of apple
size
color
position
details
lettering style
What is the theme or message carried by the
combination of imagery (words and image)?