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The Summary of Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design

Aljawharah Alkhamis, 442204513

Eng. 504

Dr. Hesham Suleiman Alyousef

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The Summary of Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design

The book Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design examines the ways in which

images communicate meaning. Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen discuss the deduction of

meaning from visual images and the rules governing this process. In the introduction section, the

writers speak about language grammar and the way it conveys messages. What applies to

language grammar applies also to the grammar or structure of visual images. The book’s writers

argue that visual structures point to specific interpretations of experience and specific forms of

social interaction. While reading visual images is like reading verbal sentences, there are some

differences. People express meaning in language through different words and structures, but in

visual images meaning is conveyed through specific colours and illustrations. Another difference

between language grammar and visual grammar is that language grammar is more restrictive and

common than visual grammar. This allows visual images to be more creative in conveying

meaning. Because visual image meaning often differs from culture to culture, visual grammar is

bound to the culture into which it is born and does not have the universality that exists in

language grammar.

Additionally, the book’s first chapter addresses the semiotic landscape and the

differences between visual representations made by children as they grow into maturity. For

example, in early stages children’s visual representations are more expressive. This expressive

illustration becomes more specific and specialised over time. In the latter years of childhood,

children tend to draw more representations with technical functions, such as maps, diagrams or

photographs illustrating a particular idea. The authors’ main idea here is that communication can
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occur through a variety of modes and that each mode has specific features. Such modes include

facial expressions, gestures, postures, verbal writing, and visual images.

The visual structures of representation can be narrative or conceptual. Narrative patterns

unfold actions and events and entail processes of change and transitional arrangements. These

patterns are further characterised as either classificatory or transactional patterns. Neither

produce ‘real’ images, but instead represent their version of reality, bound by the cultural

context. Meanwhile, conceptual patterns are the by-product of the participants in terms of class,

structure and meaning. They are about the interactions between people, places and things that are

implied in the images. They address classificational processes that relate participants through a

taxonomy. The classification process reflects the real or natural classification of participants in a

complex way.

There are two main participants in the process of recognising visual meaning: the image

producer and the image viewer. The former is called the ‘represented participant’, whereas the

latter is called the ‘interactive participant’. There are three kinds of relations among these

participants: relations between interactive and represented participants, relations between

represented participants and relations between interactive participants. Another factor that affects

the way the image is viewed is the participant’s distance from it and the participant’s perspective

of the image’s outer subject. There are two kinds of images: subjective and objective ones. Some

images have a central perspective, and others are neutral.

The truth value of the image is an important factor in conveying meaning. The authors

refer to the truth value as ‘modality’. Modality is interpersonal, rather than ideational, so there is
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no modality that may hold the absolute truth. Every modality has a specific proportion of

subjective and objective components. Modality is essential for visual communication because

decisions about modality are based on social factors and dependent on what is considered ‘real’

in the social group.

In addition to the representational and interactive nature of the image, another element

affects the way people understand an image. This is the image’s composition. ‘Composition’

refers to the way representational and interactive elements are mingled in an image to form a

meaningful whole. Composition can relate the representational meanings and the interactive

meanings of the picture through three interrelated systems: the informative value, which means

placing the participants in a system that conveys information; the salience, which is the quality of

being noticeable, and the framing, which is the presence of framing devices.

To address the relationship of images and signs, one must specify the theoretical

variables from different linguistic models. Semiological modality is oriented towards signs in

social life and focuses on language as sign system which allows the articulation of ideas

governed by specific laws. This means that ideas cannot be considered ancestors of signs, but

that the sign itself must contain two dimensions of articulation with reality which allow a

perceptual choreography oscillating between the sensible and the intelligible. The image is a

composite of sensible reality and abstract representation that guarantees the functional adoption

of the environment, preserving the spatiotemporal articulation. The concept and the acoustic

image as signifier and signified broadens the spectrum of perception to a more general level,

which can encompass other systems of functional integration. The image addresses something. It
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creates in the person's mind an equivalent meaning. Thus, people value the image’s meaning of

within its referential frame, giving it a founding feature of the image.

Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design finally deals with the ‘third dimension’

and the way it changes the beholder’s view of the image. When there is a real sculpture or a toy,

people look to it in a different way than if it were a flat image. This is due mainly to the ‘third

dimension’ feature causing people to believe that the visual representation is more alive than if it

were such an image.

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Reference

Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006).  Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design.

Routledge.