LESSON 4: Visual Communication

AH 111 (Purposive Communication)

What is Visual Communication? A painting in Chauvet Cave, Ardèche, France

- 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.

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.
or drawn on cave walls and ceilings. These
paintings include representations of animals,
landscapes, and religious images, among
others.

Among the most important figures who explored

visual communication and sight-related theories ● Petroglyphs
is Aldous Huxley. ○ These are images carved on
rocks believed to have
He suffered from near blindness when he was originated by the Neolithic
young because of an illness, but it set the stage people some 10,000 to 12,000
for his becoming one of the most influential years ago. These images are
intellectuals to have explored the field of visual also believed to have deep
communication. cultural and religious
significance to the societies that
For him, seeing is the sum of sensing, created them.
selecting, and perceiving. One of his most
famous quotes is “The more you see, the more
you know.”

Tracing the History of Visual

Communication

Evidences that visual communication is the

oldest form of communication:
A petroglyph known as “Meerkatze” found in
● Cave Paintings Mesak, Settafet, Libya
○ Cave paintings are believed to
be a primitive form of
communication that were etched
LESSON 4: Visual Communication
AH 111 (Purposive Communication)

● Geoglyphs ○ Their population had grown

○ These are drawings or designs larger and their society had
on the ground produced by become complex, hence the
arranging gravel, stones, or soil. need for accounting and
○ The purpose of Geoglyphs is accountability.
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.

A cuneiform tablet showing a tally of goats and

sheep, from Tello, Southern Iraq.

○ The writing system employed

signs to represent numbers,
things, words, and the sounds of
words.

The Nazca Lines in Peru, depicting the

Hummingbird.
● 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.
● 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.

● 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 Egyptian Hieroglyphs
organize labor and resources.
LESSON 4: Visual Communication
AH 111 (Purposive Communication)

In an academic context, the study of symbols - It involves the analysis of metaphors

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.
Major Perspectives in
Analyzing Visual Images
and symbols used in the work that
convey meaning within a particular
society at a particular time.
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

5. Cultural Perspective
- This perspective brings to the fore the
idea that all cultures use symbols to
communicate meanings within groups.