Lecture 1 - Visual Literacy

Visual literacy is something everyone uses, especially creative people, but often without even realising it or being conscious of what it is and how it works. As shown in the lecture, examples of visual literacy are abundant in our everyday lives, from road signs to business logos, advertisements to medicine instructional leaflets. The overarching concept behind visual literacy is that pictures can be read, often universally. We as a society are able to interpret meaning and take in information from images as if they were written word. With being surrounded by images constantly, not only through physical means but also virtually online through social media and even icons on our computers and phones, we are the most visually literate generation yet. We are able to use images, type and symbols as a means of communication and as designers it is our job to create work containing images that effectively communicate a message to an audience in this way. To do this, we have to be aware that the way these images are read is affected by several things, such as audience, context, media and distribution. As a result, we have to understand these factors and construct our work accordingly in order to have the most effective impact. For example, based on the idea that language is an agreement among a group of people that something such an image will represent another thing, if a desired audience is not aware of this relationship between the one image and what it stands for, that is to say that they do not know the language, then they are not going to interpret the work effectively. In this case, the designer would have to alter the visual syntax of their work, the elements used to create the image that affects it's reading, into a more universally understood structure and organisation.
Visual semiotics is essentially the study of signs and is also an important concept to understand and use to a design advantage when trying to present a message through the use of image. It includes a number of visual elements; sign, symbol, signifier, metaphor, metonym and synecdoche. Sign, symbol and signifier are fairly basic to grasp; in the example of a logo, symbol is what the image symbolises literally, so the actual logo image. Sign is what the image is a sign for, that is the company identity and products or service. And so finally signifier is what the image signifies, so the actually brand image of the company and it's values.
Synecdoche, metonym and metaphor are slightly more complicated, but equally, if not more, useful as tools to construct effective communication through images. Synecdoche describes when a part represents the whole, or vice versa. The two are inherently connected and are simply substituted with each other, however this only works when what is represented is universally recognised. The example from the lecture shows how the Statue of Liberty is used to represent New York. The statue is part of New York and is universally recognised and is familiar to most, enabling an image of it to embody the city as a whole. In contrast, a visual metonym applies when a symbolic image makes reference to something more literal, the two not necessarily being intrinsically linked but bearing a close relationship. The connection is made by the viewer by association, requiring the two parts to be somewhat familiar to the audience. The example again being New York, the yellow cabs acting as a reference to the city; even though there are yellow taxis all over the world, by association the audience relates that recognisable image to that of New York City. Finally, visual metaphors are unique again, the two images requiring no close relationship. Instead the meaning of one image is transferred to another, conveying an impression of a relatively unfamiliar subject and associating it with a familiar subject. Again the New York example being the use of the title The Big Apple. New York City has no real relationship to apples, however its meaning has been transferred onto the fruit, which has now become a universally recognised metaphor for the city.

This lecture was a bit of a light-bulb moment for me, bringing my attention to how visually literate we actually are, something I was never really aware or considerate of before. I am now trying to find ways to incorporate these tools and techniques into my work in order to develop deeper meanings and ideas to be read by an audience, finding new ways in which to convey ideas and concepts in a more thoughtful way.