Visual Literacy and Language of Design

Week 1 
3 October - 9 October

Maybe being communicative artists living in a digital age means we are unaware of how we have grown to learn a visual language so fluently. We are able to interpret symbols, images and type whilst discerning the message that is being communicated to us. Visual Imagery teaches the idea that pictures can be read, under the convention that they are a combination of universal and cultural symbols.

We are constantly flooded with this imagery, and instinctively hold an awareness of the relationship between image and intention. We lose sight of the strength that this visual language has as it becomes an intrinsic part of the language that we already recognize.

"Why is this not an apple?"
Given the image of a crisp apple, we suggested connotations of health, but when a smaller apple was placed next to it, our original image became the bigger apple, or Big Apple, thus indicating New York City. This is an example of a Visual Synecdoche- when a part is used to represent a whole.

A Visual Syntax refers to pictorial structure and visual organization of an element.
Visual Semantics are the way an image fits into the cultural process of communication and the relationship between form and meaning.

Semiotics (the study of signs and sign processes) are another part of visual communication that we have a passive understanding of and include at the core of our work, starting at storyboard level in an animation, as we need to have an understanding of linguistics and non linguistic sign systems in order to accurately portray a character or story message.