Visual Communication
a. exhibit understanding
of visual
communication;
b. trace the history of
visual
communication; and
c. come up with their
original symbol or
image that
communicates an
idea.
Activity
▪ Draw 10 examples of emoticons or
emojis and give their meanings.
Thinking it over
▪ Why do you use emoticons in your
messages? Do they convey certain
messages?
Thinking it over
▪ How effective is the use of emoticons
and emojis in your communication?
Enduring Understanding
What is Visual Communication?
▪ Visual communication refers to the use of
any image to communicate an idea. Visual
communication may take place through
pictures, graphs, and charts, as well as
through signs and symbols.
▪ These visual images inform, educate, or
persuade a person or an audience.
Enduring Understanding
▪ We communicate in a variety of ways.
▪ But we have to remember that our
success or failure in the communication
process may depend on which among
these ways to use at any given
communicative context to maximize our
success.
Enduring Understanding
▪ Among the most important
figures who explored visual
communication and sight-
related theories is Aldous
Huxley.
Enduring Understanding
▪ He suffered from near
blindness when he was
young because of an illness,
but it set the stage for his
becoming one of the most
influential intellectuals to
have explored the field of
visual communication.
Enduring Understanding
▪ For him, seeing is the sum
of sensing, selecting, and
perceiving. One of his most
famous quotes is “The
more you see, the more
you know.”
Enduring Understanding
Tracing the History of Visual Communication
▪ Evidences that visual communication is the
oldest form of communication:
1. Cave paintings
✓Cave paintings are believed to be a primitive
form of communication that were etched or
drawn on cave walls and ceilings.
Enduring Understanding
▪ These paintings
include
representations of
animals, landscapes,
and religious images,
among others.
A painting in Chauvet Cave, Ardèche, France
Enduring Understanding
2. Petroglyphs
▪ These are images carved on rocks
believed to have been originated by the
Neolithic people some 10,000 to 12,000
years ago.
Enduring Understanding
▪ These images are
also believed to have
deep cultural and
religious significance
to the societies that
created them.
A petroglyph known as “Meerkatze”
found in Mesak, Settafet, Libya
Enduring Understanding
3. Geoglyphs
▪ These are drawings or designs on the
ground produced by arranging gravel,
stones, or soil.
Enduring Understanding
▪ The purpose of
geoglyphs is rather
uncertain, although
some researchers believe
that they were built for
religious purposes.
▪ Some of the most widely
known geoglyphs are the
Nazca Lines in Peru.
The Nazca Lines in Peru, depicting the
Hummingbird. (Source: Google Images)
Enduring Understanding
4. Pictograms, Ideograms, and Logograms
▪ Pictograms are images that represent
physical objects.
▪ Pictograms (pictures which resemble
what they signify) and ideograms
(pictures which represent ideas) were the
basis of early written symbols.
Enduring Understanding
▪ They were used by
various ancient cultures
all over the world since
around 9000 BC and
began to develop into
logographic writing
The dog illustration is a pictogram. The systems around 5000 BC.
red circle and bar is an ideogram
meaning “not allowed.”
Enduring Understanding
5. Cuneiform
▪ One of the world’s earliest systems of
writing is the cuneiform script invented
by the Sumerians.
▪ They did so not to write stories or letters
but to organize labor and resources.
Enduring Understanding
▪ Their population had
grown larger and
their society had
become complex,
hence the need for
accounting and
accountability. A cuneiform tablet showing a tally
of goats and sheep, from Tello,
Southern Iraq.
Enduring Understanding
▪ The writing system
employed signs to
represent numbers,
things, words, and
the sounds of words.
A cuneiform tablet showing a tally
of goats and sheep, from Tello,
Southern Iraq.
Enduring Understanding
6. Hieroglyphics
▪ It contained a combination of
logographic, alphabetic, and ideographic
elements used by the Ancient Egyptians.
▪ It is said that hieroglyphs emerged from
the pre-literate artistic traditions of
Egypt.
Enduring Understanding
▪ As writing developed
and became more
widespread, simplified
glyph forms developed.
▪ They eventually
became the basis on
which Phoenicians
structured the modern
alphabetic system.
Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Enduring Understanding
▪ Indeed, visual communication has come
a long way, and it is now one of the most
common forms of transmitting ideas and
information.
▪ We are bombarded with a variety of
signs and symbols all around us which
makes the transfer of information readily
available.
Enduring Understanding
▪ In an academic context, the study of
symbols and visual communication is
called semiotics.
▪ Broadly, the purpose of semiotics is to
analyze how people make meaning out
of images and symbols, and how those
images and symbols are analyzed and
interpreted.
Enduring Understanding
Major Perspectives in Analyzing Visual Images
1. Personal Perspective
• This view posits that the analysis of an image
depends on the individual’s thoughts and
values and the way he or she looks at things
using his or her own personal lens.
Enduring Understanding
Major Perspectives in Analyzing Visual Images
2. Historical Perspective
• This perspective refers to the determination
of the importance of the work based on the
medium’s timeline.
• Historical perspective may be used to
support a personal perspective which may
make it more valid.
Enduring Understanding
Major Perspectives in Analyzing Visual Images
3. Technical Perspective
• This perspective takes into account how
different media convey messages differently
based on the platform used.
• The analysis of the image takes into
consideration its different technical aspects
like lighting, focus, tone, position, and
presentation.
Enduring Understanding
Enduring Understanding
Major Perspectives in Analyzing Visual Images
4. Ethical Perspective
• This perspective considers the moral and
ethical responsibilities shared by the
artist or the producer of the image, the
subject, and the viewer.
Enduring Understanding
Major Perspectives in Analyzing Visual Images
5. Cultural Perspective
• This perspective brings to the fore the idea
that all cultures use symbols to communicate
meanings within groups.
• It involves the analysis of metaphors and
symbols used in the work that convey
meaning within a particular society at a
particular time.
Enduring Understanding
Major Perspectives in Analyzing Visual Images
6. Critical Perspective
• This perspective allows the audience to look
at the larger issues associated with the
image, meaning, the issues transcend the
image and shape a reasoned personal
reaction.
Activity # 1: Oral Activity
▪ How did the visual communication
evolve?
▪ What is the importance of visual
communication?
Assignment
What to do:
• Think of an idea or concept that, to the
best of your knowledge, has no visual
representation yet.
• Design and draw a symbol that will
communicate this idea.
Assignment
▪ Make sure that your symbol or image is
original.
▪ Be as creative as you can be. Explain the
symbol or image and its meaning.
Assignment
Where to put: Short bond paper
When to pass: November 9, 2020
No. of points: 50
