DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Reminders:
1. Pass in your drafts for your analysis and poster today.
2. WEDNESDAY - Chapter 3 quiz!
The powerpoint will be posted later today.
Please note that I have tagged the slides with quiz content
(what you are expected to know) with a red circle in the
upper right corner.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
How does the use of light add to these messages?
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Sense of mystery, drama, suspense
Very high contrast, intensity of light
Phosphorescent glow weird
Around show title too
Ghost-like
Unnatural, creepy, sci-fi
Apprehensive, curiosity
Light coming at you
Black and white, serious
Dark, alleyway setting, scary
Figure fills the space
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Physical experience = information = association
Fireworks at night = energy and sound = exciting
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Highlights the drama
Frames the people, lighter and
more energetic
Makes the bull scary and heavy
Scale is large/overwhelming and
leaving no space to get around it
Close and more intense
experience
Personal view, ‘bulls eye’ looking
at you
Organic, diagonal edges
pronounced, enhanced sense of
movement and excitement
Authentic experience - really there
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
Eyes Evolved for Walking and Safe Eating
Seventy Percent of All Sensory Receptors are in the Eyes
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Chapter 3: The Eye, the Retina, and the Brain
The visual sense is one that we use a great deal to take in information in our environment.
We need to take a closer look at:
1. how this sense works to better understand how to create visuals that attract the eye
2. expressions we make with our eyes as powerful elements in a visual message.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Chapter 3: The Eye, the Retina, and the Brain
3. how the brain
receives information
from the eye how parts of the brain
work to retain visual
information as memory,
to process new visual
information or to
recognize visual
information.
Knowing more about this
whole process means
we can design
messages that will be
effective.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
A Camera is Like an Eye
• Housed Within a Protective Area
• Built-In Lens Cleaning
• Shutter is Like an Eyelid
• Aperture is Like a Pupil
• Focus Along the Back
• Emulsion or Scanning is Like the Photoreceptors
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
How Does The Human Eye Work?
The individual components of the eye work in a manner similar to a camera.
Each part plays a vital role in providing clear vision.
As the eye's main focusing element, the cornea takes widely diverging rays of light and bends them through the
pupil, the dark, round opening in the center of the colored iris. The iris and pupil act like the aperture of a camera.
Next in line is the lens which acts like the lens in a camera, helping to focus light to the back of the eye.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
The human eye accommodates to
changing lighting conditions and
focuses light rays originating from
various distances from the eye.
The amount of light in a scene causes
the iris to enlarge or contract the
opening.
Research shows that emotional
responses or special interests do the
same thing.
Drugs can also affect the size of the
opening.
When all of the components of the eye
function properly, light is converted to
impulses and conveyed to the brain
where an image is perceived.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
The very back of the eye is
lined with a layer called the
retina which acts very much
like the film of the camera.
The retina is a membrane
containing photoreceptor nerve
cells that lines the inside back wall
of the eye.
The photoreceptor nerve cells
of the retina change the light
rays into electrical impulses
and send them through the
optic nerve to the brain where
an image is perceived.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
The center 10% of the retina is
called the macula.
This is responsible for your sharp
vision, your reading vision.
The peripheral retina is responsible
for the peripheral vision.
As with the camera, if the "film" is
bad in the eye (i.e. the retina), no
matter how good the rest of the eye
is, you will not get a good picture..
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Disease or age can dramatically alter how well the eye works.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
The Retina
• 125 Million Photoreceptors
• 7 Million for Color
• 118 Million for Low Light
Regions of the Retina
• Peripheral
• Outside Portion of the Retina
• Sensitive to Low Light
• Sensitive to Movements
• Macula
•
•
•
•
Diagram of the Human Eye
Sharp Focus and Color
Foveal Pit: Most Sensitive Cells
Saccades: Constant Movement
Doesn’t function well in low light
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
The outside edge of the retina
alerts the body that something has
moved and is worth your attention.
Moving the head will bring the
object directly into line for focusing
by the macula.
Diagram of the Human Eye
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
The brain is constantly telling muscles
to move the eyes in order to
concentrate on objects observed by the
sensual data received from the
peripheral area.
The brain is always alert for change.
It moves the eyes so that an interesting
visual target is always in the center
view where the foveal pit is.
So what graphic design principle
would work with this information
effectively?
Contrast
Diagram of the Human Eye
Emphasis
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Photoreceptors: Rods and Cones
• Rods
• Peripheral Region
- sensitive to movement
• Visual Purple and chemical
bleaching by strong light which
affects the rods
• Used in night vision/low light
• Cones
• Concentrated in Macula Region
• Three Types Sensitive to Red,
Green, and Blue
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
Color Deficiency
• Octopuses and Squid Only see Blue;
Spiders Only See Green
• Human Color Deficiency: Mostly Male (8
Percent) See No Difference between Green
and Red
Diagram of the Light Path to the Rods and Cones
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
As you move your head from side to
side, try to count the black dots.
The faint and fleeting black dots
replace the white dots only within
the mind of the viewer.
The illusion is a result of the rods in
your retinas going through the
excitatory and inhibitory process.
Rods are sensitive to slight
movements by outside objects.
Exposure to light immediately starts
the bleaching process.
The excess energy from that process
excites a fellow rod, causing it to be
bleached while the original rod
becomes unbleached.
This allows the brain to distinguish
edges easily so it can detect slight
changes in movement.
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
The Optic Nerve and Optic Chiasma
Depth perception is not only a result of
having two eyes, but also of a separation
of each eyes’ image within the brain.
The optic nerves from each eye intersect
behind the eyeballs at a place called the
optic chiasma.
This physiology allows for an even
distribution of the visual message
throughout the brain, which may aid in
quicker recognition of objects.
The Optic Chiasma
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
HOW THE EYE AND THE BRAIN WORK TOGETHER
1. Light rays enter the eyes by passing through the
cornea, the aqueous, the pupil, the lens, the vitreous,
and then striking the light sensitive nerve cells (rods and
cones) in the retina.
2. Visual processing begins in the retina. Light energy
produces chemical changes in the retina's light sensitive
cells. These cells, in turn, produce electrical activity.
3. Nerve fibers from these cells join at the back of the
eye to form the optic nerve.
http://www.blindbabies.org/factsheet_eye_brain.htm
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
HOW THE EYE AND THE BRAIN WORK TOGETHER
4. The optic nerve of each eye meets the other at the
optic chiasm. Medial nerves of each optic nerve cross,
but lateral nerves stay on the same side. The overlap of
nerve fibers allows for depth perception.
5. Electrical impulses are communicated to the visual
cortex of the brain by way of the optic nerve.
6. The visual cortex makes sense of the electrical
impulses, and either files the information for future
reference or sends a message to a motor area for
action
http://www.blindbabies.org/factsheet_eye_brain.htm
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
The Brain - a sophisticated communications network
• 100 Billion Nerve Cells Each Linked to Up To 10,000 Other Cells
Thoughts and
actions are
communicated from
one cell to another
throughout links in
the brain.
Repetition and
practice strengthen
them.
Stronger links lead
to quicker
recognition and
association of
objects and ideas.
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_01/i_01_cr/i_01_cr_fon/i_01_cr_fon.html
Q
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Think about a small child's first experience when his mother points out a red
bird and tells the child, “That's a red bird. It's called a cardinal.”
The child attempts to repeat the word. “Cawdnal. Bood.”
The child's brain has made a connection.
A few neurons are now talking to each other about birds.
If the child watched as the bird flew out of the tree, he may have the connecting
neurons of bird-cardinal-fly.
The next time he sees a cardinal, his brain will make those connections again.
This time the neurons may connect faster, because when neurons learn or
practice information, they become more efficient at connecting.
Neurons are stored in columns in the upper portion of the brain called the
neocortex (Sylwester, 1995).
The child might make other connections related to the cardinal. If he sees
geese flying south, he might add that to the bird-cardinal-fly connection. From
there, he might add a butterfly or an airplane.
This chain of neurons is called a neural network.
The more often the brain accesses the network, the stronger the connections
become. Those synapses, or spaces, become stronger as well.
As these neurons are repeatedly “fired,” that is, talk to each other, the dendrites
and axons become accustomed to the connections, and the connections are
easier to make.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
These findings strongly suggest that when early life neglect is
characterized by decreased sensory input (e.g., relative poverty of
words, touch and social interactions) there will be a similar effect
on human brain growth as in other mammalian species.
The human cortex grows in size, develops complexity, makes
synaptic connections and modifies as a function of the quality
and quantity of sensory experience.
Sensory-motor and cognitive deprivation leads to
underdevelopment of the cortex in rats, non-human primates and
humans.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
Thalamus in the center:
Filters all but Vision
All impulses that arise from the
sensory systems (except the
sense of smell) pass through
the cells of the thalamus.
This area suppresses sensual
information that the
conscious mind doesn’t need
to know about.
It does pass on the optic nerves
impulses to the visual cortex in
the back of the brain.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
The Cortex
Q
• Occipital Lobe: Where Images
are Initially Processed (Visual
Cortex)
• Parietal Lobe:
Navigation and Grabbing
• Temporal Lobe:
Recognition and Meaning
After the visual cortex processes the visual
message, it is sent via two pathways - the
‘how’ and the ‘what’
The how is in the parietal lobes located at
the top of the brain - concerned with vision
that helps us move safely about the world.
The what pathway goes to the temporal
lobes located just behind the temples…
responsible for recognizing objects and
assigning meaning.
Occipital Lobe (Visual Cortex) in the Back
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
The visual cortex divides a
visual message into several
different parts.
Cells in the cortex are highly
specialized:
some for color recognition,
others locate edges,
others look for lines.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
The Cortex
• Amygdala: Emotions get Attached
If an image is filled with meaningful and
emotional content, it is sent to the
Hippocampi
• Here Memories are Created - and
Destroyed (alzheimers, etc…)
The Amygdala Are Attached to the Hippocampi
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
All of our communications (inputs/outputs) are
based on our senses.
Since sight is usually our most relied upon sense,
our strongest form of communications could be
the visual ones.
Raw emotions or intent are often sent through
body language.
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Body Language is so important that we automatically
understand it - much expression and emotion is
understood through body language.
We all understand "being stared down", smiles, people
avoiding eye contact, scowls, slouching posture, a
"cocky" walk, etc.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
It is the most natural form of communication, most animals use their body language as their first
form of communication.
Watch a cat or dog "raise their hackles" (hair on their backs), lower themselves to get ready to
spring, make themselves appear larger by turning sideways, make a facial or verbal snarl.
Anything that fails to recognize these warning signs may be in for an unexpected experience.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Covering the eyes protects
them, but also hides them to avoid interaction, for
disguise or perhaps to
prevent others from really
knowing the emotions of
the person
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Perhaps because many of us are so
dependent on our eyes, there are
stereotypes and prejudice about
compromised eyesight:
Blind people being less capable, etc…
Eyeglasses as unfeminine, gawky
Albino - unusual pinkish eyes
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
Humans have a very visual body language.
Our eyes express emotions.
Our posture expresses emotion and intent.
Our gestures express emotion and social
order (class, culture).
Our appearance (dress, cleanliness, haircut,
etc.) expresses social order and standing.
We are particularly aware of eye contact in our
communication with people.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
One of our most expressive features is our eyes/face. We ‘read’ expression to understand intent.
This makes eye contact one of our first forms of body language, along with the fact that we use our visual
sense/eyes to gather information…
Eye contact is allowed with anyone for a couple of seconds, but more than that is "out of the ordinary". If you
look at someone for longer than that, it means something, and they are going to to try to guess at the
meaning.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Everyone understands that when the opposite sex
makes continued (prolonged) eye contact with us that
they are "interested" in us.
If you stare (or glare!) at someone, it may be
assumed that you are challenging them.
If someone's eyes glass-over, de-focus or wander they have lost interest; they may be either bored,
daydreaming or fantasizing.
These are all expressions used intentionally by visual
communicators.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
For example, alertness is
associated with eye
movement.
If a person is looking
around the room
occasionally, checking
things out, that person is
displaying alertness.
If a person is always
looking around, eyes
never remaining on one
object for very long, they
may be nervous or scared.
If a person stares at one
object or eyes glaze over,
we might guess that
person is "out of it”,
perhaps bored or
overtired.
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
The Degree of Eye Contact
Affects an Image’s Message
Sir John Herschel
by Julia Cameron
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
What is the message
in these eyes?
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Why are their eyes closed?
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
The use of positive
expression in the
eyes and the use of
light as a symbol
for creativity…
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Symbolism and the eye
The eye has a range of symbolic meaning used by
communicators. Here is one example:
US DOLLAR, 1957
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
The eye is above the pyramid.
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
The Continental Congress decided to create a
national seal or emblem on July 4, 1776, the same
day that the congress adopted the Declaration of
Independence.
The congress appointed Benjamin Franklin, Thomas
Jefferson and John Adams to a committee to come
up a national seal.
It took six years, three committees, several artistic
contributions and many revisions before the final seal
was adopted on June 20, 1782.
The single eye shows up
in Egyptian mythology
as the Eye of Horus, an
ancient god of the
Egyptians.
The eye represented
wisdom, health and
prosperity.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Q
The unfinished pyramid and the eye in a
triangle on the reverse side are classic
symbols.
The Egyptian pyramid is a symbol of strength
and duration;
the 13 steps indicate the original number of U.S.
states;
and the 13 steps leading to an unfinished summit
indicates future growth of the nation.
The eye is known as the "Eye of Providence" and
is surrounded by rays of light.
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
The "Eye of Providence"
According to Webster's New World College Dictionary, "providence" can
mean:
1. a looking to, or preparation for, the future; provision.
2. skill or wisdom in management; prudence.
3. a) the care or benevolent guidance of God or nature,
b) an instance of this.
4. God, as the guiding power of the universe.
Above the "eye" are the Latin words "Annuit Coeptis." This translates to "He has
favored our undertakings." This line is associated with the "Eye of Providence."
Below the pyramid are the Latin words "Novus Ordo Seclorum," meaning "A new
order of the ages," referring to the birth of America in 1776.
http://money.howstuffworks.com/question518.htm
DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture
Visual Communication: Images with Messages
Lecture Exercise:
Considering what we have
discussed today, what was
the visual communication
strategy behind selecting
these images for this CARE
website focusing on efforts
to help people after a natural
disaster?
Write a few sentences in
response.
http://www.careusa.org/vft/honduras/