1. Introduction to Visual Communication and Web Design

This unit is different than most of our units. In this module, we will be spending our time simultaneously in two different areas:
First, we will be getting familiar with Blackboard and with the online process in general.
Second, we will be reading and discussing what is meant by the term, Visual Communication

Some of you are returning students and will know each other. For several of you, this is a new experience. Online courses in this certificate program tend to be relaxed and fun, with people establishing friendships that persist beyond the semester and the confines of the program.

Let the course begin!

If you have not read the syllabus, please do so now. You can access it from the left menu bar in Blackboard. The syllabus is an agreement between us. It specifies what we will cover during the course and the 'classroom' expectations. There is a link to the participation rubric. I did say this class will be relaxed and fun, and it will, but it is also a lot of work.

You need to allot 6-9 hours per week for this class. Some of that will be spent in reading the course materials. Other time will be spent in thinking about discussion topics and creating your replies. You will need to respond to other student's postings. Please do NOT feel that you must respond to every posting. Respond to the postings where you can contribute meaningfully to the discussion (no 'me too' postings, please). There is no right or wrong answer in these discussions - just explorations.

And, of course, there are assignments. These will mostly be short pieces using your camera and/or a digital imaging program. You will not be graded on your technical skill with either a camera or the software, but on your willingness to explore and embrace new concepts.

Visual Communication

Visual messages, with their own rules of syntax, are being read, but this language means nothing to those who can only read words. - Paul Martin Lester

Many of you come to this program with a background in communication theory. For those who don't have that (and for the rest of us who may have forgotten it), there is a short summary of communication theory basics by Dick Lee.

To begin our study of visual communication, we will be considering 'visual thinking' - or literally 'thinking in pictures'.

By looking at people whose brains have been damaged by disease or degeneration, scientists have been able to observe a shift in communication powers and patterns from verbal to visual communication. Dr. Temple Grandin further elaborates on the visual thinking process. Dr. Grandin is a high function autistic with a PhD and a career in animal handling equipment. She credits her abilities to understand animals so well to her ability to 'think in pictures', rather than words.

To a greater or lesser extent, we all think in images, as well as verbally. A few people are extremely verbal in their thought patterns; a few are extremely visual. Our current society places a high value on the verbal organization and expression; early agricultural cultures probably were more visually oriented.

Visual knowledge

In studying learning differences between Western and indigenous cultures and learning styles, Robert N. St. Clair has proposed the following observations:

Visual metaphors are just another way in which knowledge can be shared. In the heritage of the Western world, this is done essentially by means of a print culture. What this entails is an analytical mode of cognition in which verbal information is processed sequentially, logically, and rationally (TenHouten & Kaplan, 1973). In this framework, there is a predilection for such disciplines as the natural sciences, mathematics, and other rationally oriented and logically based activities. By way of contrast, there are oral cultures in which the relational mode of cognition prevails (Ramírez & Castañeda, 1974). Under this approach to human information processing patterns are not analyzed sequentially as in verbal expression, but are seen as simultaneous structures, as visual patterns. In addition, these patterns are perceived in more emotional terms. Consequently, those who operate within this cognitive style have a predilection for music, dance, and other forms of artistic expression.

What is significant about oral cultures is that they make common use of visual metaphors. It is their way of symbolizing their beliefs about the world. It is their way of organizing knowledge. This way of knowing is legitimized by the culture and expressed in a tradition of rich visual imagery. This legitimization of knowledge is commonly referred to as the way of the people. It is what folklorist and anthropologists attempt to describe, understand, and know when dealing with oral cultures. Their research details a different model of information processing, a sanctioned cognitive style, and another perspective.

Information processing modes of print and oral cultures

PRINT CULTURE ORAL CULTURE
Cognition Analytical Mode: Look for the details and not the whole. Synthesizing Mode: Look for the overall meaning and how the details fit together.
Processing

Sequential: Go from left to right.

Simultaneous: view everything at once just as one would view a painting.
Thought Relational, Logical: Reason logically and use syllogisms.Put people into categories.Do not rely on emotions. Affective, Emotive: Feelings are important. Use emotions to understand others.
Predilections

Mathematics, Science

Art, Music, Dance
Legitimization

Verbal Metaphor: Use metaphors based on language.

Visual Metaphor: Use metaphors based on the reorganization of visual space.
Literacy Print, Technology Orality, the Arts

reprinted from Visual Metaphor, Cultural Knowledge, and the New Rhetoric by Robert N. St. Clair

For this class, we want to grow in our ability to effectively use visual communication by learning the language and syntax. The divide between the written and the visual tradition in Western culture has occurred comparatively recently. The industrial revolution required and educated, literate society to operate and maintain the machinery. Prior to this time, much of the Western tradition was oral and visual. A quick trip to any medieval cathedral demonstrates this. The stories are painted on the walls, or carved into the doors and frames. The viewer can retell the bible story, just as the reader could reread the tale. Our first readings review the basics of communication theory and look at the specifics of visual information.

The images below are all retellings of Christ's temptation in the wilderness. The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. (Mark 1:12-13)

stained glass

The Temptation in the Wilderness
13th century stained glass London

duccio

Duccio Di Buoninesegna The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain c1308

engraving

Temptation in the Wilderness, engraving from 1557

flandes

Juan de Flandes The Temptation of Christ, c. 1500/1504

botticelli

Sandro Botticelli, Temptation of Christ1481-1482. Fresco. Sistine Chapel, Rome

ghiberti

Lorenzo Ghiberti, Panel from North Doors of Florence Baptistry c.1404-24

Many of the people and object shown conform to visual guidelines, whose meaning we have lost or forgotten. There were oral traditions, but there were also dictionaries of meaning that an artist could reference. One such set of guidelines was Ripa's Iconologia, a manual published in 1593, which was an alphabetically arranged catalogue of classical and baroque symbolism. We could very loosely compare Iconologia to Strunk and White Elements of Style, in that both provide guidelines for correct expression and syntax of the elements of the vocabulary.

"Today Ripa's Iconologia is an essential primary source for how baroque symbolism was understood.  Although it is clear that artists used his interpretations liberally and sometimes not at all, other subsequent artistic compositions can be traced directly to Ripa.  Giovan Francesco Guerrieri's paintings in the Palzzo Borghese in Rome and Francesco Pianta's carvings in the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice are peculiar representations that are taken directly from Ripa (Praz).  Art historians and archaeologists use the Iconologia both as proof that specific symbols held specific meaning and as a paradigm for how personifications were transmitted." Dictionary of Art Historians

An example of the iconologia used by a major work of art is Vermeer's Allegory of Faith, c.1671- 1674

" This unusual Vermeer represents an allegory of Catholic faith. The figure of Faith is depicted in a theatrical pose, clutching her hand to her breast, her eyes gazing upwards and her right foot resting on a globe. She is loosely based on the symbolic representation from Ripa's Iconology in which Faith is described as 'a seated lady ...her feet resting on Earth'." Martin Bailey

As our culture has become increasingly visually sophisticated, our images have begun to tell longer and deeper stories. You must know the visual symbolism to understand the stories. How do our ads tells stories about our contemporary cultures and myths? Are our visual symbols universal or confined to our culture?

One of my favorite summaries of the success of visual communication (or visual storytelling) comes from an art review:

"Storytelling has historically served as a form of entertainment but also as a cultural necessity. Stories carry histories, map moral laws and religious beliefs, and teach lessons of survival. Whether bearing sorrow, humor, or wisdom, they are remembered rather than memorized, they are given as gifts and belong to all. A good story is told time and again over the centuries; it travels from country to country, in each place picking up something new as well as leaving something behind... While oral stories leave images up to the imagination, visual tales leave the actual narrative open to interpretation. ." absolutearts

Archetypes, cliches and visual memory

chairreclinerSemiotics is the science of the study of signs. Sign are pictures, which communicate meaning to the viewer. although we have lost the iconography that was used in the Renaissance, we have our own current cultural iconography. Some diagramof this is created through our shared history and cultural icons - consider the lazyboy recliner versus the straight back wooden chair. One represents contemporary relaxation in front of the TV; the other represents either a dining room or a formal attitude in sitting. Using Schramm's model (left), discussed in Developing Effective Communications by Dick Lee, what we are communicating visually can be understood by the recipient if we have a shared cultural experience.

Let's take a quick glance at the vocabulary of semiotics. It's worthy to note that the three terms - icon (or picture), index, symbol - don't indicate different types of images, but instead these terms which describe the functions which are fulfilled by the images.

Icon - An Icon sign is a sign that resembles something, such as photographs of people or realist painting, which looks like the object which it is depicting. The word icon comes from the Greek εἰκών, eikon - meaning image. An icon is an image that looks like what its supposed to represent. An icon can also be illustrative or diagrammatic, for example a 'no-smoking' sign or a computer desktop trash can..

Index - An Index is a sign where there is a direct link between the sign and the object. An index is experiential. Typical examples of an index sound like clues from a Sherlock Holmes novel: footprints on a beach showing direction, or smoke indicating a fire. A map is an index, which provides clues between the represented world and the real world.

Symbols - A symbol has no logical meaning between it and the object. A flag is a symbol of the country or organization for which it stands A dollar sign is a symbol for a type of exchange. A traffic sign (typically) is a symbol, with a commonly agreed upon meaning. A rectangle which glows red yellow or green has no meaning unless you have been instructed in the meaning and the meaning broadly accepted throughout the culture.

The list below states some generalizations about icons, which apply to symbols in general.

ALL ICONS:

  1. are graphic simplifications and condensations of meaning. They distil a range of ideas into a single representation and act metonymically as a substitute for a multi-faceted whole
  2. circulate across semiotic forms and across media
  3. are both singular and repeated
  4. function as visual cliches, despite variation.

from Introduction: An Atlas of the Urban Icons Project by Philip J. Ethington and Vanessa R. Schwart

Visual communications are based on signs and their related meanings. Through repeated usage, all signs become archetypes, stereotypes and cliches. We think of archetypes in a positive sense, stereotypes tend to be seen as hurtful and cliches are boring. Definitions for each:

Archetype According to Carl Jung, archetypes are characters, images, plot patterns, rituals, and settings that are shared by diverse cultures. Jung believed that archetypes are part of humanity's "collective unconscious" and that they appear in literature, myth, folklore, and rituals from a wide range of cultures. They also manifest themselves in the subconscious thoughts and dreams of people.

Stereotype: A stereotype was originally the name for a duplication made during the printing process; this led to its modern definition as a person or thing that is (or is assumed to be) the same as all others of its type. Common stereotypical characters include the absent-minded professor, the nagging wife, the troublemaking teenager, and the kindhearted grandmother.

Cliche: A familiar expression that has been used and reused so many times that it’s lost its expressive power. “Happy as a clam” or “eyes like a hawk” are examples of cliches

When we are making visual communications, we want to be sure that we are in full control of how we are using the visual imagery. There may be a reason for using a cliche, but, equally, there may be an urgent need to find an archetype for our communication.

"As cultural theorists note, however, the media create as much as reflect reality, and their process of "selection and interpretation" is historically significant. "In a society as a whole, and in all its particular activities," wrote Raymond Williams in 1961, "the cultural tradition can be seen as a continual selection and re-selection of ancestors." by Carolyn Kitch

Brand Solutions has trademarked the term Archetypal Branding. Although it may be repellent to read about the the effectiveness of archetypes for human morivation, the company does a good job of clearly describing the process and the effect. If we want to communicate successfully, it is best to lear to communicate on all possible levels.

"ArchetypalBranding™ - Branding, market research, and advertising services relating to the study and use of archetypes in advertising and marketing. Universal Archetypes - An inherited pattern of thought or symbolic imagery derived from the past collective experience and present in the individual unconscious. An original model or type after which other similar things are patterned; a prototype. For example, the archetypes of the Hero and the Outlaw (e.g., Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader from the Star Wars movies) are found in many myths, stories and movies.

Universal Archetypes - Forms and images of a collective nature:

  • Naturally establish meaning and relevance at a subconscious level.
  • Authentic, genuine, compelling, credible, universal, and deeply moving.
  • Links you with your audience in a psychologically compelling way.
  • Know how the brand should act & behave.

Archetype = brand personality.

Benefits of Archetypal Branding:

  • Provides a guideline for how the brand should act.
  • Gives you a human identity, a persona, a face, and a brand personality to guide how employees should act and behave.
  • Your brand's archetype is based on the actual shared values of your employees and management team so the archetype will resonate on a deep psychological level with employees and customers.

Shared values = Trust.

Cultural Archetypes:

A pattern of thought or imagery shared by a single culture.

Cultural grammar.

  • Most products, services, and issues have a cultural archetype.
  • Forms and images shared by a single culture.
  • Early emotional experiences and unconscious codes that shape and direct our personal lives as well as our culture.
  • Naturally establish meaning and relevance at a subconscious level.
  • Authentic, genuine, compelling, and credible at the cultural level.

Benefits of Cultural Archetype Branding:

  • Links you with your audience in a psychologically compelling way.
  • Avoid cultural mistakes.
  • Avoid advertising mistakes. Brand Solutions

Required Reading

Recommended Reading and Resources

Discussion - Week One of the module:

1 - Introductions: Please answer the following questions (in the forum):

2 - Discussion Questions: (These are points to begin thinking and discussing these issues. You are not expected to produce an answer list to these questions, but rather to discuss the ideas with your classmates in the forums.)

Discussion - Week Two of the module:

Assignment One - Icons and metaphors in the world around us.

Directions for posting to the course blog

Find or take three images or photographs (one per type) which illustrate the following image types, each being an interpretation of the same object, person, event, emotion, etc:

  1. visual archetype
  2. visual stereotype
  3. visual cliche

Identify where you found each image. Describe, in 50 words or less, how each becomes 'shorthand' for meaning. Part of this assignment is that you will have to define what is a visual archetype, what is a stereotype and what is a cliche - and how do they differ? Calendars and greeting cards are gold mines of visual cliches. Why?

If you are having trouble getting started, you might browse the Miriam Webster Visual Dictionary. This has images which are stripped of most of their cultural symbolism, in an attempt to convey the literal meaning.

Submitting your assignment:

valentineExample: Three Hearts

Cliche: The valentine is a sentimental expression of friendship or love. In the past century, the valentine heart has become almost devoid of meaning. Valentines are sent between classmates in elementary school, the giving of these tokens of affection being dictated by the teacher. the cliche is the exaggerated expression of a real or forced affection, yet adults often sentimentalize the purity and simplicity of affections between children.

MilagroStereotype: The milagro is a a votive or a prayer-offering used in many Mexican cultures. The meaning is often deeply personalized, or may be regional. A heart can represent a prayer to fix a medical condition, or a request for love or for healing. It can represent love, healing, and gratitude. The heart milagro is the most common image offered at shrines. The stereotype arises from the convention of the stylized metal charm. This particular Milagro is made of recycled computer parts, breaking out of the strict stereotype.

Jim DineArchetype: Jim Dine is an American pop artist who used common images to explore his personal iconography. Typically, Dine used the heart to express his simple and complex feelings for his wife. In this painting, "Study for This Sovereign Life", Dine adds the skull. The warm, lush colors of the heart contrast with the blue, cold tones of death, reminding us of our own mortality. The glossy shine of the iconic heart contrasts with the messy reality of the skull.

Questions for the discussion:

Below are more images relating to the theme of hearts and love. Which images are cliches? Which tell a deeper story? Which tell any story? Which hold your attention and offer multiple layers of meaning? Which are the most powerful? Are they all equally usable? Do some become boring and lose their meaning?

day camp

hands

Balfast

doctor

queen of hearts

 

love embrace