Unit 1 vl

Unit I. A Comic book storyVisual Language I

Teacher: Sara del Río

1.What is Visual Language?

- Human beings use communication to relate something. We use it to exchange messages.

Visual language is the communication system used exclusively for communicating through images.The main advantage of Visual Language is that it can be interpreted by most people still if they have different cultures and languages.

CodeCode

ChannelChannel

MessageMessage ReceiverReceiver

2. Elements of Visual Language

TransmitterTransmitter

Who elaborates the message

Who interprets the message

Transmitter: who creates the message.

Message: the information the transmitter wants to communicate.

Channel: medium used by the transmitter to send the message (Paper, canvas, etc…).

Code: group of rules and knowledge used to generate the message (Visual Code, Principles of Composition, Light, Colour, Shape and Volume).

Receiver: who interprets the message.

2.1 Elements of an Image

As any language has basic elements (signs or images) and a way of ordering (syntax)Visual images in its most basic form consist of:

Shape: Defines the look. It can be a regular (square, triangle, rectangle, polygonal, circle, symmetric) or an irregular shape (asymmetric, not geometrical).

Color: Essential in visual communication. Within the range of colors you can distinguish the cold (blue, purple and green) and the hot line (yellow, orange and red).

Texture: They are represented on the surface, the texture differentiates the real object of the "represented". Usually integrated into the overall picture, providing an environmental sense.

3.What´s the meaning of an image?: Signifier & signified

Images have a signifier and a signified.

The signifier is the object/image itself, its appearance.The signified is the content of the image, its meaning.

SIGNIFIER: Indian people travelling by train.SIGNIFIED: poverty problem in India.

SIGNIFIER: Indian people throwing petals to the fire.SIGNIFIED: clothing & rituals exoticism in India.

5. Logo, icon, sign, signal & symbol

There are some kind of images that share an special code easily understable by people around the world:

-A logo is a graphic element used to represent a person, product or company.

-An icon is a visual graphic sign: the image of a logo.

-Signs and pictograms are images which represents an object or idea reducing it to its simpler form, but containing all of its meaning.

-Signal: a particular kind of sign with an abstract content that is contained by a geometrical form (triangle, square, circle)

-Symbol: is a sign which shows no relation between signified and signifier that usually represents some abstract concept, such as ‘peace’, ‘love’,etc…

6. Functions of Visual Language

Visual Language has 4 different functions according to the message an image wants to transmit:

Informative: Images that show the basic elements to understand the main information about the represented object. Instructions sheets for objects/ machines are usually informative.

Aesthetics: Images that wants to communicate beauty and harmony primarily.Design products are usually aesthetics.

Expressive: Images whose aim is to evoke a particular sensation or emotion in the viewer (happiness, sadness, joy, melancholy, fear…). Paintings and sculptures are usually expressive.

Exhortative: Images that try to persuade the receiver to consume a product, service or an idea. Advertising images are usually exhortative.

A Visual Language funtions example: a watch

Informative

ExhortativeExpressive

Aesthetics

7. Level of iconicity

The level of iconicity its the level of similarity of an image with reality.

The level of iconicity of a color photograph is high because it accurately represents reality, but when we speak of cinema the level of iconicity is even higher because sound and movement are also represented.

Hyper-realistic style in painting have a high level of iconicity.

Figurative style let the viewer recognise the represented but it’s not faithful to reality, so the level of iconicity is medium.

In Abstract art, reality is not represented so the level of iconicity is low.

8. Realistic, figurative & abstract imagesAn image can have different interpretations depending on the characteristics of the transmitter and the receiver:

-The transmitter determines the meaning of an image than a receiver complete when he receive it. There are three ways of expression:

Realistic, these are images similar to reality, like Photography or drawings of high precision.

Figurative, these represent reality-based forms but with a free interpretation.

Abstract, it doesn’t represent images based on reality. They are new forms created to represent a particular world.

Realistic & Hiper Realistic

Antonio López, Gran Vía, 1974-1981

Chuck Close,Leslie, 1986

Figurative

Francis Bacon, Self-Portrait, 1076

Jaume Plensa,Shadows VI, 2008

Abstract

Piet Mondrian, Painting nº 2, 1925

Jackson Pollock, Number 8, 1949