ADAMA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

UNIVERSITY

GRAPHIC COMMUNICATION SKILL ꟾ-(ARCH2204)

ASSIGNMENT-1

Content
page
 Visual communication theory----------------------1
 Semiotics theory-------------------------------------1
• Signs that make up a picture’s narrative------------2
 Cognitive theory-------------------------------------4
• Mental activities that affect visual perception--------4
 Constructivism theory-------------------------------7
 Ecological theory------------------------------------8
 Huxley-Lester model theory------------------------9
 Reference--------------------------------------------10
 Visual communication theories
Visual communication as the name suggests, it’s communication
through visual aid and is described as the conveyance of ideas and
information in forms that can be read or looked upon. Visual
communication in part or whole relies on vision, and is primarily
presented or expressed with two dimensional images, it includes: signs,
typography, drawing, graphic design, illustration, color and electronic
resources. It also explores the idea that a visual message accompanying
text has a greater power to inform, educate, or persuade a person or
audience.

I. Semiotics theory=study or science of signs

• A sign is simply anything that stands for something else.
• Almost any action, object, or image will mean something to
someone somewhere
• For something to be sign, the viewer must understand its
meaning
Types of Signs
1. Iconic Signs

• To be like or to seem as something

• Iconic signs most closely resemble
the thing they represent
• The most common examples are
found in photographs and motion
pictures – meant to be true
representations of what they depict
2. Indexical Signs
• Have a logical, commonsense
connection to the thing or idea
they represent rather than a direct
resemblance to the object.

3. Symbolic Signs (most abstract

• Symbols that have no logical
or representational connection
between them and the things
they represent.
• symbols more than the other
types of signs, have to be taught

Roland Barthe’s – chain of association - signs

that make up a picture's narrative

 Metonymic
• Is a collection of signs that
cause the viewer to make
associations or assumptions
 Analogical
• A group of signs that cause the
viewer to make mental
comparisons

 Displaced
• Those that transfer meaning
from one set of signs to
another

 Condensed
• Several signs that combine to form
a new, composite sign
• Within the culture the message is
intended for, the condensed code
has relevant meaning. But for those
outside that culture, the images
often are confusing, random and
 without purpose

II. Cognitive Theory

• A viewer does not simply witness a light structure object
but actively arrives at a conclusion about the perception
through a mental process.

Mental Activities that affect visual perception –

Carolyn Bloomer

 Memory
• Is basically our personal link
with all the images we have
ever seen
• mnemonics

 Projection
• A person’s mental state of
mind is thus “projected” onto
an inanimate object –
projecting personal
interpretation and meaning
 Expectation
• Having preconceived
expectations about how a
scene should appear – often
leading to false or missed
visual perceptions

 Selectivity
• Unconscious, automatic act by
which large numbers of images
enter and leave the mind
without being processed – the
mind focuses only on
significant details within a scene

 Habituation
• To protect itself from over
stimulation and unnecessary
pictures, the mind tends to
ignore visual stimuli that are a
part of a person’s every day,
habitual activities
 Salience
• A stimulus will be noticed
more if it has meaning for the
individual

 Dissonance
• Conflicting imagery
television programs that
combine written and spoken
words, multiple images, and
music run the risk of creating
visual messages that the
viewer cannot understand
because of all the competing
formats

 Culture
• Images which span ethnicity,
economic situation, place of
work, gender, age, sexual
orientation, physical disability,
geographic location, and the
entire composite of a person’s
life
 III. Constructivism theory
 When we look at anything, we have to piece it together.
We do this through a series of rapid eye movements
that assemble a blueprint of what we’re looking at, while
at the same time comparing the results to memory and
past associations. So, in effect, we construct images out
of many narrowly focused observations.

 Constructivism helps to explain why our eye's move

while looking at images; however, it's only a minor
clarification of Gestalt
 IV. ECOLOGICAL THEORY
 Gibson developed what he called an “ecological approach”
to the study of visual perception, according to which
humans perceive their environments directly, without
mediation by cognitive processes or by mental entities
such as sense data. This idea was radical because it
contradicted a centuries old model of the origins of human
knowledge. As Gibson himself put it, “The old idea that
sensory inputs are converted into perceptions by
operations of the mind is rejected.”
 We interpret what we see through spatial properties in the
environment: Surface layout, composition, lighting, motion,
gradation, shape, size, solidity and scale.
 Light is the way it reveals the three dimensionality of
objects and scale, the way objects diminish as they recede
from us are the two most important properties that we use
to interpret space.
 Many perceptions about size and depth require no “mental
calculation”
 V. Huxley-Lester Model Theory
 This model states seeing is:
Sensing + Selecting + Perceiving = Seeing
Sensation: physical act of eyes taking in light
Selection: concentrating & isolating the focus of your
vision
Perceiving: grasping or understand what you see.
 the other half of our vision involves perception - how we
understand and filter what we see.
 seeing something blankly is one thing;
understanding its meaning is entirely different.
 The more you see the more you know.
 Sight and thought are inseparable.
REFERENCES

• Graphic Communications Today, 4th Edition by William Ryan &

Theodore Conover. Delmar Learning 2004
• Graphic Design Basics by Amy Arntson. Wadsworth
Publishing, 4th edition (2002)
• https://lauradesignsite.wordpress.com
• https://studylib.net
• https:www.slideshare.net
• wikipedia