Visual language - Visual Literacy Lecture Notes.

Word  - Message - Meaning

David Crow's Visual Signs

Semiotics? What is this?

• Constructing meaning from visual images and type
• Interpreting images of past, present and different cultures

Key Elements

• Frame
• Format
• Figure/Form
• Ground/Visual Dynamic
• Composition
• Type
• Image
• Colour
• Layout
• Legibility
• Readability

"the solution to a problem of communication through design"

Visual Communication

• Process of sending and receiving messages using image and type
• Based on a shared level of understanding of signs, symbols and relevance

Visual communication is affected by:

• Audience
• Context
• Media
• Method of Distribution

Stereotypical imagery and references help communicate - example: Blue is for boys Pink is for girls.

We are a global culture.

Airports are international and must speak a common language.

Representation - simplified

• Stripping something down to its bare essentials needed to communicate the meaning.
• We recognise silhouettes and basic shapes.
• Effective design makes an audience assume the meaning, the audience applies a lot of information and background history.

It is necessary for any language to exist that an agreement amongst a group of people that one thing will stand for another.

Context of Association

A glyph can mean many things when standing alone - example: + can mean plus, and, an indication of position on a map or a logo for a medic or hospital.

But when put with others it has just one meaning - example: +- now its a plus sign because the subtract sign next to it makes the audience recognise it to having that meaning in conjunction with it.

Most meanings have been taught to us.

Semiotics

• Sign - for?
• Symbol - what does it represent?
• Signifier - what it brings in to the representation/what it relates to.

• Metaphor - visual metaphor is used to transfer meaning from one image to another. Although the images may have no close relationship, a metaphor conveys an impression about something relatively unfamiliar by drawing a comparison between it and something familiar.
• Synecdoche - this term is applied when a part is used to represent the whole, or vice versa. The main subject is substituted for something that is inertly related to it.
• Metonym - visual metonym is a symbolic image that is used to make reference to something with a more literal meaning e.g. a cross might signify a church. By way of association the viewer connects it to the main subject.

Work the metaphor - every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.

We are visually literate.

You control the communication

Advertising is essentially graphic design.

Never let your cleverness get in the way of communication.

How many words do you need to say something?

The more words you use the more likely you are to cause confusion of meaning.

Credit your audience with intelligence.

How do your words affect meaning? e.g are you telling someone what to do? or are you persuading them to do something?

Life was so much easier when Apple and Blackberry were just fruit.

"If your not failing now and then, then your not doing anything innovative" Woody Allen.

YOU CAN'T POLISH A TERD! 

IF YOU'VE GOT A CRAP IDEA, FLUSH IT!