Visual Literacy

Why is this not just an apple: 

This is not just an apple because its visual identity is linked to products and brands, which we use everyday. 

We are here because...

• It is our job is to communicate. 
• We solve problems of communication through type image and/or motion.
• We are interested in words, language, message and meaning. 
• We need to be able to effectively communicate ideas, concepts and content to different audiences in a range of contexts.

Visual Communication: 

• Is a process of sending and receiving messages using type and images. 
• Is based on a level of shared understanding of signs, symbols, gestures and objects. 
• Is affected by audience, context, media and method of distribution.

Visual Literacy: 

• The ability to construct meaning from visual images and type. 
• Interpreting images of the present, past and a range of cultures. 
• Producing images that effectively communicate a message to an audience.
• The ability to interpret, negotiate and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image.

Korean

English

Visual literacy is based around the idea that images can be read, and universally identified.

Visual communication is made up of presentational symbols whose meaning results from their existence in particular contexts.

An example of a symbol that can universally used, but the meaning changes depending what context in is the cross, all of the images above feature the cross, but all of the images have different meanings. 

All that is needed for a language to exsist is an agreement amongst a group of people that one thing will stand for another. Being literate requires an awareness of the relationship between visual syntax and visual semantics. 

Visual Syntax:

The SYNTAX of an image refers to the pictorial structure and visual organisation of elements. it represents the basic building blocks of an image that affect the way we ‘read’ it. These elements include: 

framing - format - scale - colour - font - stroke - weight - shape - composition - layout - motion - light - rhythm - space - depth - texture - text - words - tone - shade - line - mark - direction - editing - manipulation - simplification - emphasis layering - hierarchy

For example each of the images above feature and egg, but in different forms. Yet anyone would know that the basis of each image is the egg. 

Visual Semantics: 

The SEMANTICS of an image refers way an image fits into a cultural process of communication. It includes the relationship between form and meaning and the way meaning is created through. These elements include: 

cultural references - social ideals - religious beliefs - political ideas - historical structures - iconic forms - social interaction - individual experience - recognised symbols - established signs

For example, when you see these signs which would make you slow down? both, this is due to the context they're presented in and the cultural process that the audience relates to a warning sign.

Semiotics: 

Is the study of signs and sign processes (semiosis), indication, designation, likeness, analogy metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication. Semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which studies the structure and meaning of language. Semiotics also studies non-linguistic sign systems, visual language and visual literacy

Linking back to the apple, an apple is not just an apple ...

The apple can also be used as an example of visual synecdoche, metonym and metaphor ...

The big apple... otherwise known as New York. 

Visual Synecdoche: 

This term is applied when a part is used to represent the whole, or vice versa. 

The main subject is simply substituted for something that is inherently connected to it. 

This substitution only works if what the synecdoche represents is universally recognized. 

Visual Metonym:

A visual metonym is a symbolic image that is used to make reference to something with a more literal meaning. 

By way of association the viewer makes a connection between the image and the intended subject. 

Unlike a visual synecdoche , the two images bear a close relationship, but are not intrinsically linked. 

Visual Metaphor:

A visual metaphor is used to transfer the meaning from one image to another. 

Although the images may have no close relationship, a metaphor conveys an impression about something relatively unfamiliar comparing or associating it with something familiar.

Work the metaphor...

'Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.’ Incomplete Manifesto for Growth - Bruce Mau.