COP LECTURE 2 - COP1 Lecture - Visual Literacy.

Visual Literacy

The main idea behind this lecture was the fact that as graphic designers our job is to communicate and this is one of the most vital skills we need to have.

Visual Communication:
- Communicating ideas using type and images.
- Based on a level of shared understanding of signs and symbols.
- Altered dependant on audience.

Visual Literacy:
-Constructing meaning from visual images and type.
-Interpretation of images
-Creating images that effectively communicate a message

We were shown a picture of a toilet sign in Korean which featured no written english at all yet everyone could work out that it was a sign telling you were the toilets were. This is because every country uses a variation of the stereotypical outline of a man and woman which you associate with being on toilet doors. No matter where you are this is instinctively the sign you look for when you are trying to find a toilet.

For some symbols our brain automatically reads it and associates it with a variety of things. For example when you see the symbol '+' on its own this could suggest:
-Maths
-Church
-First Aid
-Ambulance
Yet when it is put into context with other symbols such as: + - = x it can only mean mathematics.
Simple adjustments to it such as elongating the central stem create a cross which refers to religion and christianity, or changing the colour of it to green then instantly screams first aid.

Visual Syntax:
The pictorial structure and visual organisation of elements, represents the basic building blocks of an image which alters the way we read it.

Visual Semantics:
The way an image fits into a process of communication, including relationship between form and meaning and the way meaning is created.

Semiotics
The study of signs, symbolism, signification, indication and communication. Related to linguistics (the study of structure and meaning of language)
SYMBOL       (logo)
SIGN              (Identity)
SIGNIFIER    (Brand)

Visual Synecdoche:
When a part is used to represent the whole or the other way around.
e.g. The statue of liberty representing the whole of New York.

Visual Metonym:
A symbolic image used to make reference to something with a more literal meaning

Visual metaphor:
Used to transfer the meaning from one image to another