http://jpetrill/ design strategies in a visual culturevisual communication: images with messages

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DESIGN STRATEGIES in a visual culture Visual Communication: Images with Messages

Visual Information and Culture

Engaging the senses

Dependency on the visual sense


Visual expressionStyle

Purpose


• What is information?

• How do we communicate?

• Why is visual information so effective in communication?

• What are the guidelines for effective design of visual communication?

• What are cultural influences on communication design?


How do we ‘read’ this entranceway?

What do we pay attention to?

Perception of information by the senses and mind


Q


source - encoder - channel - decoder - receiver

Q

The same information can be expressed in different ways: a voice, a letter.

Unlike matter, information can be in many places at once.

A handshake is information. A nod. A look. A sigh.

Information is formed by rubbing two bit-streams together.

Information dwells in bit-streams, on paper, on stone, in a gesture.

Information craves a medium, a shard of tumbling time-space to dwell upon.

Exerpt from:

THE NATURE OF INFORMATION

Edward M. Housman

The MITRE Corporation, 1999

http://valinor.ca/thepoem.html


http://www.imageandmeaning.org/


QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.


Communicating effectively in the visual age

Visual communication is everywhere today, from electronic media like Web pages and television screens to environmental contexts such as road signs and retail displays.

As the National Education Association has pointed out,

”Western civilization has become more dependent than ever on visual culture, visual artifacts, and visual communication as a mode of discourse and a means of developing a

social and cultural identity.” 1




The connection between seeing and remembering

Why do people remember what they see so much more readily than what they hear?

One recent article on the subject describes the evidently limitless capacity of long-term memory to store concepts and then points to studies that seem to indicate that :

Pictures have a direct route to long-term memory, each image storing its own information as a coherent ‘chunk’ or concept.”5




Q


Studies show that people remember:

10% of what they hear

20% of what they read

80% of what they see and do

Q

Visual Versus Verbal Communication

Recent research regarding how the brain operates reveals that visual communication reaches the brain first and influences how people interpret verbal communication.

It is visual communication that “sets up our cognitive thinking, skewing it automatically toward a particular response,” reports a study by Ann Marie Barry of Boston University.

The report notes that verbal communication is slower and reinforces the cognitions established visually. Furthermore, visual communication is closely associated with emotions and has a more powerful effect on human behavior than verbal communication and its rational associations.

The rational is ineffective when “high social or ego involvement is the prime motivating factor.” Words are “more experientially remote and less directly emotionally involving,” than images, Barry wrote.

Q

A picture is worth a thousand words, or so the saying goes. Pictures are indeed superior for conveying intuitive or global information.

By contrast, they do a poor job of expressing abstract concepts and lack the accuracy that words are endowed with.

Words, in a sense, are worth a thousand pictures. The choice between words and pictures, as any choice in professional communication, depends on the purpose: usually, a combination of both is most appropriate.

Q

http://discovery.wcgmf.org/category_211.html


Visual information - visual choices determined by purpose

Mayberry LaneOrganic Produce

Come pick your own!

Open 9-6 weekdaysMayberry Lane Road

Plainfield, VT802-999-5555


Mayberry Lane• Organic Produce •

Come pick your own!

Open 9-6 weekdaysMayberry Lane Road

Plainfield, VT

802-999-5555

How does a change in the way the letters appear alter the way you interpret the information?


Mayberry Lane

• Organic Produce •



Come pick your own!Open 9-6 weekdays

Mayberry Lane RoadPlainfield, VT802-999-5555





How does the image add information or influence the message?


Take five minutes to write down which of these ads you think would be successful, and why. Put your name on the paper. You will hand this in at the

end of class today. This is how I will take attendance for most classes.

Which ad holds your interest? Which image would you remember?

How does the image influence how you receive and respond to the intended message?


A survey showed the one on the left had more lasting impact.

We may pay more attention to imagery that is:

1. easy to read and comprehend

2. is relevant or engaging to us in some way

3. has some emotional impact.


Q

http://www.api4animals.org/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=18&products_id=59


Advocating against animal entertainment of this type…

Strong image, bold compositional arrangement, strong and plain

wording/lettering style.

Mayberry Lane










How does the image add information or influence the message?


Take five minutes to write down which of these ads you think would be successful, and why. Put your name on the paper. You will hand this in at the

end of class today. This is how I will take attendance for most classes.

Lecture Response - a very brief summary! MANY good points were made…

A large number of students felt the first image on the left was effective, connected well to the idea of health and fun, and especially appealing to families or parents.

The next largest group thought the photograph of the farm was more effective as it provided a direct reference to the location.

Mayberry Lane











Most of the class felt the emotional impact of the design/image on the left was compelling. The image in the piece on the right was seen as positive and direct - the person is looking right at the viewer.

- 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 is a process of sending and receiving messages using images.

Visual literacy can be defined as the “ability to construct meaning from visual images”.

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.

Your brain processes information 1.directly via sensory experiences, 2.via your own mental activity (imagination, etc…) and 3. via mediated imagery (print or screen – tv, computer, movies).


Q

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.


Aldous Huxley was an author keenly aware of how one sees and understands the world.

He wrote 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.


Q

SENSEThe first stage is sensing – using the senses to detect signals from the immediate environment.

SELECTSelecting is the next stage – a conscious, intellectual act where one chooses to pay attention to something.

PERCEIVEPerceiving is making sense of what is selected – that is, make meaning.This is an active process – not mere observation, but intentional.


Consider the baseball enthusiast - who sees, or experiences, more of the game than one who has no idea what the game involves.

Q

When we experience visual information, we make comparisons with previously stored mental pictures or information.

Depending on the context, humans pay close attention to information that is entertaining, novel or threatening.

We respond to visual information because it is part of our survival strategy as human beings.


Q

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.

The information may be what is unexpected, or new, within the image that we will pay attention to.


Q

Many of us depend a lot on the information we get from vision.

But sight is dependent on light.

We refer to light verbally 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.

This film noir image is intended to create a dramatic effect, enhanced by the use of black and white photography.


Light in a design can add information that influences how we read what we see.

Light in a design can add information that influences how we experience the design.

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").

Because the image is well organized, we can ‘fill in’ the missing information or do what is called ‘closure’.


Q

Because it has organized parts, we see and re-cognize the bike as a whole versus a series of parts.


We read the visual cues, or parts of the design, to understand the purpose of the design. If the composition is well organized, it is easier to understand this.


This entrance may be easier to

understand and use.

Q

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; the wealth of experience.

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.


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

Q

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?

Colornatural, earthyblue sky is central—event will be like carefree summers of the pastcreates sense of nostalgia and excitementwarm, neutral tones feel rusticyellow/orange is soothing, draws you in“vintage” feelusing guitar color to flow into background color—color bridges foreground and background

Textureruggedgrittyweathered makes you want to relaxold crumpled sheet musicshiny guitar against weather background is flashy, excitingScrap book quality is soothing, idea of memories to create,

ContrastGuitar pops outLettering is bold, dark and softdifferent variations on lighting in imagesworn corners of images, soft curves of guitar and handsdark on left, lighter on rightlarge capital letters draw you in, must read.

Images3 dimensional effect of layeringImages of times gone byeach symbolizes something: hands=friendship, ferris wheel=fun, etc.all include peoplebusy-ness of advertisement reflects busy-ness of festivals—fun, loud, entertainingcontent of images is important: biker, guitar, old time musicimages are preview of event

Feelings:family fun, relaxationExcitement, ad feels like an invitation

Let’s consider one visual ‘symbol’: An apple

Some content/cultural associations:

HealthyEducation - teacherEvil - the witchs giftAdam and EveComputers

Write a response to the following (to hand in today). Please make sure your full name is written clearly. How is the imagery used in this book cover?Consider: type of apple

visual qualitiessizecolorposition/compositiondetailslettering styles

What is the theme or message carried by the combination of imagery (words and image)?

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


http://www.beehivecollective.org/english/front.htm

The Scream by Edvard Munch

In recent years, The Scream has joined The Mona Lisa painting as one of art history’s

most reproduced icons.

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.


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 offered 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.


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.

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.


Different types of media are used to communicate - print, radio, TV, film and more. Each medium can influence how information is presented and received.

Television has been a huge influence on technological and cultural innovations leading toward a visual culture, as well as providing a collective experience. The emphasis on two major senses, sight and sound, creates an engaging format. .

TV can bring the outer world -- news, entertainment, sports, travelogues, movies-- into our immediate space.


Q

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.


Q

But all use of imagery, especially photographs, leads to questions of ethics and responsibility, as well as copyright issues - particularly on computers.


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, which provides new opportunities for engagement with information.

Since imagery can be highly manipulated and shared globally, there are ethical issues that must be addressed.

The Internet is highly visual environment that requires literacy and word skill for productive use.


Q

sensing, selecting and perceiving

An effective designer understands what to choose and assemble with this process in mind, in order to make messages that an audience reads, comprehends and responds to successfully.


http://jpetrill/ design strategies in a visual culturevisual communication: images with messages

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