Visual communication is the interaction of meanings and thoughts through visual stimuli. Usually in 2D visual communication covers a wide range of genres including art, ideograms, typography, photography, illustration, graphic design and many others.
In this essay I will try to evidence the natural evolution of readability and legibility in visual communication and how it’s progression reached its pinnacle before the beginning of post-modernism. I will look as far back as the first known instances of visual communication, the cave paintings, and target key elements to the evolution and progression of visual communication including ideograms, the alphabet, scribes, the printing press, slave ship diagrams, the Renaissance, Leonardo Da Vinci and the Avantgarde, before concentrating on the change from Modernism to post-modernism. In my essay readability refers to the ease in which we can read the piece and legibility discuses the message it is trying to convey.
It is my View that Visual communication, for the most part; naturally progressed over time due to the influence of previous developments. I believe that this reached its pinnacle during modernism and experienced a drastic change during post-modernism.
The main theory that i will be trying to evidence is the natural progression and evolution of readability and legibility in visual communication until the beginning of post-modernism
The earliest known form of visual communication is Indonesian cave paintings dated at
Over the past few decades, enhancements in the visual fields have greatly improved, giving weight on the importance of visual material in text. Something that is more visually stimulating can usually make a text more convincing or credible. The term “seeing is believing” proves this fact. As humans, we tend to believe something if we can actually see it, which is why Jay David Bolter has referred to this phenomenon of the changed role of text and graphics as the “visual culture” in his book Writing Space. “Mere words no longer seemed adequate; they had to share their space with images.” (Bolter, 69).
In the beginning of chapter four, The Typographic Mind, Neil Postman delivers an impressive narrative argument about the impact of print information culture on 17th and 19th century minds. Postman makes a few claims with respect to the contrasts between the written and spoken word. In this essay, there are four qualities of the typographic mind: attention span, listening ability, knowledge of issues, and literary language.
* Communication can be either verbal or written. Communication can also be seen by facial expressions, gesture and body language. In addition to the words, messages are transferred by the tone and quality of voice and eye contact.
The visual elements in a work of art can be made up of various different types of elements. “Composition, harmony, proportion, light, color, line, texture, mass, and motion are all part of the vocabulary of sight. We tap this vocabulary, and the patterns that go with it, when we compose or frame images”. The visual elements that are portrayed in the engraving of “Ullysses at the Table of Circe” by Flaxman consists of lines, shape, space, texture, and color. “Viewers bring to the act of seeing individual sets of conscious and unconscious reactions that affect their response to the visual stimulus put before them. This is the beauty of images, even in their most minimal form— such as a single line”. The lines that are used in this work of art are
Communication is the way one exchanges information with another person. Communication can take on many forms such as verbal or written language, or non-verbally as in body language such as the use of hand gestures, eye movement, or facial expressions. Ones dialect is
In the chapter “The Word on the Streets,” Craig Clunas discusses calligraphy’s power in a society where both literate and illiterate people can understand. He explains that the “writing’s color, materiality, and form” matter more than what the actual content (84). Therefore, even illiterate people can comprehend the importance of a piece of writing (84). In fact, calligraphy on placards were used as a “form of social control,” and this even worked on people who did not understand the words (85). For example, there were some texts so powerful that just their presence was enough to be “an instrument of punishment” (88).
Art by its nature is a subject of the philosophical, social, economic, political or religious context surrounding its creator. More often than not, a work of art addresses a specific topic or somewhat revolves around a particular person. Therefore, it is impossible to separate the context of a piece of painting, either historical or cultural, to its intrinsic value or the artwork's meaning. On the other hand, different cultures and time utilized specific conventions that govern the representation of objects of creativity. This essay highlights various pieces of art and their relationship to particular cultural, political, economic, or social settings. Moreover, it pinpoints how different times influence art presentation.
Ryan, W. (2012). Visual literacy: Learning to see. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/
Communication, the act or process of using words, sounds signs or behaviors to express or exchange information or to express your ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., to someone else. (Merriam Webster dictionary). There are four forms of communication; verbal, non-verbal, written and visual.
Art had played an important role in building up civilizations from all over the world through thousands of centuries. It is and will always still the way of projecting artists’ ideas and thoughts into meaningful and tangible objects which we called “work of art”. In addition, It was the path through all these years that dug its way to reach to our current century to show us the beauty of every single era starting from the Upper Paleolithic Period of time (42,000 – 8,000 BCE) reaching to our contemporary artists of today.
In today’s society, technology and art go hand in hand. Art has been around for a long time but technology such as computers are still very new. These two mediums have comingled and now evolve and effect the other. Art has changed to reflect the vast improvements technology has contributed to communication and the ability to create using digital space. Technology has also changed with artist pushing the boundaries of what is technical possible in the digital realm. Much of today’s art is created and presented in digital formats. The question of whether digital art is truly art has risen among many critics in the art community.
Communication is basically, a medium of exchange of thoughts and ideas. In the earlier days, when no particular language was developed, people still used to express their views. Thoughts can be expressed through symbols, signs and paintings. When we go to
Even before a young child can read or write they learn the alphabet as the beginning of interpreting the process of reading and writing. Equally a small child can generally recognise popular signs and symbols, such as the “M” for McDonalds or the Coke symbol before they can read. Just as society associates signs and symbols with various meanings, artists convey their thinking, beliefs and feelings to the audience through their works. This can be described as visual language or how images are used to communicate messages. This communication is vital to
“Vision is the art of seeing the invisible” ( Jonathon Swift). We have been indulging in the arts and have used art as a way to express and interact with the people surrounding us. To the carved images on rocks, and to the cartoons shown on the TV, the evolution of Graphic Design has shown us the importance of typography, photographers, illustrators etc. have on our society. When paper, ink, and pencils didn’t exist, our ancestors would carve their warnings, messages, and emotions on rocks and walls. Our ancestors don’t realize that such small acts such as these was the beginning of a huge movement, that wouldn’t be recognized until thousands years later. During the 16th century, China was able to establish a technique called woodblock printing or, the application of ink on raised curved surface, that allowed multiple text and images to be made quickly. China’s wide extension of printing slowly reached the middle east and caused Europe to start producing woodblock broadsides and printed books. The first printing press was constructed by Johannes Gutenberg, which was the first metal movable type to create a large amount of printed books. In the Old days books were very rare, expensive and were very valuable. The creation of the Printing press allowed books to be done faster, cheaper and it allowed books to be more accessible to the public. Graphic Design or “the art or skill of combining text and pictures in
Visual communication with graphs and charts usually reinforces written communication, and can in many case replace written communication altogether. As the adage goes “a picture is worth a thousand words,” such visual communication is more powerful than verbal and nonverbal communication on many occasions. Technological developments have made expressing visual communications much easier than