As an illustrator, it is my job to communicate; communicate ideas, enhance a message or meaning and persuade people. That is the core of my practice and I have to be interested in words, language, message and meaning. In order to be successful, I must be effective at communicating and ensure that is works coherently to a range of audiences. A wide range of viewers will receive and host my work and this is a factor I must consider when producing work.
Visual communication as a concept in its' three basic forms include type, image and motion. Visual communication as a core term is the sending and receiving of images. It is a process of being aware whether a visual message is clear enough to send - but also ensuring that the audience receives it, too. A shared understanding, in a sense. An audience is driven in terms of my illustrative discipline so the distribution has to be effective enough. We are a visually literate generation, the first to have such a grand platform, and visual culture is on a global scale through press, the internet and social media. It is bigger than ever before and we consume and interpret visual images daily without realising.
A visual synecdoche is part of something that represents the whole. For example, the Statue of Liberty has become the symbol of New York as it is part of that geography and carries the meaning of the entire city. However, it only works when the image is universally recognised - if you had never seen Lady Liberty before, you would not make that connection. A visual metonymy is a symbolic image that is used visually to make reference to something with a more literal meaning - an associated part of what we know already. Continuing with the New York example, a yellow taxi is now physically a part of NY as they are everywhere - but we make that connection when the image is within context. Work the metaphor, work on what it stands for and take those meanings to apply to the work I am doing.
Reflections and Thoughts
Even though I am very familiar with semiotics, largely due to my Access to HE Contextual Studies lectures last year where we explored them in detail in regards to advertising, it was still fascinating to delve into visual literacy and make sense of the things I process daily, with my limited vision, without considering the meaning behind the signs and symbols I 'read'. It was beneficial to note how minor changes, such as extended lines or a change in colour, can mean the image suddenly reads differently and presents new connotations and meanings. This is something I will certainly consider when creating my illustrations going forward.
Visual literacy is the ability to construct the meaning from visual images and type - from the past and present as well as other cultures - to interpret, negotiate and construct meaning from information presented in the form of an image. It is something we do automatically through a cognitive process of colour, culture. historical, technological and social symbols we have learned through life. When manipulated, it can be a robust language that we can work with creatively. When the complex visual system of interpreting signs and symbols can be deconstructed, we can control it and allow communication to be more sophisticated.
Cultural connotations are ingrained within us as we grow. We are sometimes given things from bygone eras that we have to adapt. Visual language, signs and symbols are not static and they are something that moves, changes and shifts as well as being affected by culture, society and the say-to-day things we experience. Like any other language it continually develops and we must develop along with it. Pictures can be read. Our level of literacy has a visual equivalent. Before the written word there was the picture; paintings on cave walls, Egyptian hieroglyphics, to name a few. I need to identify how I can use this vocabulary to communicate successfully. For any language to exist there needs to be an agreement amongst a group of people that one element can mean another / can stand for another - knowing that one thing that is highlighted can mean something else. To simplify, there is a whole different range of ways that we can interpret and work with principles. Some of these symbols have a history, reiteration and representation and use within visual culture is something that feeds into our own visual literacy. Different time periods, countries and cultures will affect the meaning of the sign or symbol.
Being visually literate requires the relationship between two elements - visual syntax and visual semantics. Syntax refers to structure, organisation, the components we use to create an image. We use these to effect, enhance and communicate - the building blocks to improve upon, such as shape, texture and colour. Semantics convey how the image fits within the context. This can be geographical. It has nothing to do with the building blocks of an image, or the elements, but the context - the cultural and the societal - and the relationship between the two is how we control visual communication. Semiotics is a complex subject, referring to the study of signs and sign processes; what they mean, the association with them, the symbolism. The core study of how literacy and visual literacy works. The apple logo, for example, is the sign for the company (identity). The signifier means the aspects and associations that we interpret from the image; for Apple we associate things such as quality, innovation, lifestyle, creativity and design (brand).Cultural connotations are ingrained within us as we grow. We are sometimes given things from bygone eras that we have to adapt. Visual language, signs and symbols are not static and they are something that moves, changes and shifts as well as being affected by culture, society and the say-to-day things we experience. Like any other language it continually develops and we must develop along with it. Pictures can be read. Our level of literacy has a visual equivalent. Before the written word there was the picture; paintings on cave walls, Egyptian hieroglyphics, to name a few. I need to identify how I can use this vocabulary to communicate successfully. For any language to exist there needs to be an agreement amongst a group of people that one element can mean another / can stand for another - knowing that one thing that is highlighted can mean something else. To simplify, there is a whole different range of ways that we can interpret and work with principles. Some of these symbols have a history, reiteration and representation and use within visual culture is something that feeds into our own visual literacy. Different time periods, countries and cultures will affect the meaning of the sign or symbol.
A visual synecdoche is part of something that represents the whole. For example, the Statue of Liberty has become the symbol of New York as it is part of that geography and carries the meaning of the entire city. However, it only works when the image is universally recognised - if you had never seen Lady Liberty before, you would not make that connection. A visual metonymy is a symbolic image that is used visually to make reference to something with a more literal meaning - an associated part of what we know already. Continuing with the New York example, a yellow taxi is now physically a part of NY as they are everywhere - but we make that connection when the image is within context. Work the metaphor, work on what it stands for and take those meanings to apply to the work I am doing.
Reflections and Thoughts
Even though I am very familiar with semiotics, largely due to my Access to HE Contextual Studies lectures last year where we explored them in detail in regards to advertising, it was still fascinating to delve into visual literacy and make sense of the things I process daily, with my limited vision, without considering the meaning behind the signs and symbols I 'read'. It was beneficial to note how minor changes, such as extended lines or a change in colour, can mean the image suddenly reads differently and presents new connotations and meanings. This is something I will certainly consider when creating my illustrations going forward.
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