Visual Communication Overview

In this section you’ll find examples of how images are used to convey thoughts, emotions, and subtle messages to the audience. Take the cover image I used in an earlier portfolio, shown on the right.

The first obvious connection is between the word focus and the glasses. The more subtle message that’s being delivered, is that you can’t see the details until you’re looking through the glasses of visual rhetoric.

I find that I learn best when I can relate what I’m reading to an image or video, and I think that’s true for most people. Visual rhetoric makes, to loosely quote Fred Barnard, “A picture worth a thousand words”.

Technical communication can use visual cues to draw people in from a distance or solidify ideas and concepts that aren’t readily apparent at first glance.

The effectiveness of my creations depends largely on the amount of forethought and revisions I make during its development. However, this process does not occur in a vacuum and is best done in collaboration with different perspectives and expectations.