Visual Literacy - The language of design

Visual Communication:

- Process of sending and receiving messages using type and images

- Based on a shared understanding we have of signs, symbols, gestures and objects.

- Affected by audience, context, media and method of distribution

Visual Literacy:

- The ability to construct meaning from visual images and type

- Interpreting images from the past and present and a range of different cultures

- Producing images that effectively communicate with an audience

For Example:

These signs\symbols are a clear representation of visual literacy because they can be recognised universally because they are presentational whose meaning results from their existence in particular contexts. Other things lead towards there meanings such as colour and formation. 

For instance this cross can be interpreted in many different ways, however it needs context for the real meaning to be portrayed. 

Once context is added to the cross it is clear to see that it is a plus sign, because of the other mathematical symbols giving it context, however alone they can be interpreted differently.

The same applies for context here with the religious symbols, the top symbols is mostly recognised as the symbol of christianity, and then put with the other religious symbols it seems to make sense, however, the cross is not the symbol of christianity it is the fish in the bottom right corner. so sometimes symbols can mean different things to different people, because all that is necessary for any language to exist is an agreement among people that one thing will stand for another.



Being Visually literate requires an awareness of the relationship between
Visual Syntax 
&
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 ...........etc 

Visual Semantics-

The semantics of an image refers to the 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: Cultural references, social ideas, religious beliefs, political ideas, historical structures e.t.c 

Semiotics- 

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

Visual Synecdoche-

This term is applied when a part is used to represent the whole, or vice versa. The main subject is substituted for something that is inherently connected to it. This substitution only works if that what the synecdoche represents is universally recognised. 

Visual Metonym-

This is a symbolic image that is used to make reference to something with a more literal meaning. By a way of association the viewer makes a connection between the image and the intended subject. 

Visual Metaphor- 

This is used to transfer the meaning from one image to another. although the images may have a close relationship, a metaphor conveys an impression about something relatively unfamiliar comparing or associating it with something familiar.