"Seeing comes before words. The child
looks and recognizes before it can speak."- John Berger, media theorist,
writes in his book Ways of Seeing (Penguin Books, 1972),
A single
picture is worth a thousand words and when it comes to capturing the consciousness
of your viewers, you want to take full advantage to communicate your message
and visual communication, thus, comes into existence. Effective visual effects
not only powers up a communication but also boosts engagement with the
audiences. For instance, Jacek Utko, a little-known
newspaper designer whose redesigned newspaper not only won awards, but also
increased circulation of the newspaper by up to 100%. It’s pretty amazing to
see how just by adding visuals and illustrations, the newspaper was announced
as the World’s Best Designed Newspaper by the Society For Newspaper Design.
If a
message is emancipated to the public but no one remembers it, did it really
happen? Communication does no good if your audience does not retain it. Studies
show that our brains not only process visuals faster, but it retains and
transmits much more information when it is delivered through visuals.
Through experience and experimentation, we have
increased our understanding of the visual world and how we are influenced by
it. Psychologist Albert Mehrabian demonstrated that 93% of communication is
nonverbal. People think using visuals.
How do you feel when you look at this picture?
How quickly did you feel that way? Can you see how an image could be used to
elicit a strong emotional response immediately and impact the viewer? If one
tries to textually describe this picture, the emotional reaction would not be
as strong and it would take more time to digest the information.
Don Levy’s ‘Cinematic
Journey Through Visual Effects’ makes me realize that all of us have probably taken
movies for granted. It is pretty amazing how dreams or illusions are created
through visuals effects in movies and how they influence and manipulate the
audiences to a great extent. In
one of the greatest twist endings of all time, the washed up figure of the
Statue of Liberty is seen on the beach of the Planet of the Apes. It is an
amazing moment not just on account of the spectacle itself but also for the
brilliantly tense build up and pay-off. The film’s ending is successful in
manipulating the expectations of the audience.
A
few examples of good visual communication are as follows. Also notice how they
impact you as a viewer and how you interpret their meaning. 
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