Nearly all people use visual communication every day to take in and share information with others. This online textbook is designed for a Visual Communication course, which is about how we make sense of our visual world and use visual principles to effectively share meaning with others. Watch this video for an introduction of what's included in this book.
Using This Textbook
This book is organized in topic-based chapters that are meant to be read sequentially, meaning that later chapters may refer back to examples or concepts from earlier chapters. Learning about visual communication requires many visual explanations and examples, so each chapter contains a mix of text, videos, images and external links that refer to supplementary web-based material such as interactive games, tools and resources, and professional visual work such as photo essays.
Each chapter includes key ideas to help reinforce important principles. Each chapter also includes questions to help you stay engaged with the material.
- Comprehension check questions are indicated by a checkmark ✓ and have a "correct" answer, or sometimes multiple correct answers.
- Personal connections questions are indicated by a speech bubble 🗨 and ask for experiences, preferences or real-world examples related to course concepts. Answering these questions demonstrates that you understand ideas from the course and can accurately apply those ideas in other contexts.
These questions — or similar questions — may appear on exams, quizzes, or weekly participation assignments. Here’s the first one:
🗨 The introduction video mentions that we say “I see” to mean “I understand.” Think of at least one other phrase, saying or idiom that relates to vision or seeing. (If you are bilingual, you are welcome to list an example from a language other than English and explain the meaning.)
Developing Habits of Visual Observation
Think of the five senses you learned about as a child: sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing. People who can see the world around them depend heavily on this sense to understand the world, particularly because media makes it possible to see things we cannot experience with our own bodies. We cannot touch the sand of a faraway beach or smell a flower that bloomed a century ago, but visual technology allows us to see back in time and across the world (and farther).
"A Study" by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1865-66
A view of ancient Ogunquit Beach on Mars from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, 2017
If you have had reasonably good vision your entire life, there's a good chance you take this for granted. As you go through this book, try to think objectively about how you use and rely on vision as you go about the regular activities in your life. What catches your eye? Why do you notice some things and not others? What is the difference between looking at something and really seeing it?
Visual art and design are often considered intuitive and even inexplicable; a common idiom in English is saying a person "has an eye" for photography, fashion, design, etc., meaning they have a natural talent for visuals. However, visual communication is grounded in science, and there are evidence-based principles that everyone can learn and apply. Some people have an aptitude for visual observation and can easily notice and replicate visual patterns in media and the environment, similar to how some people can learn a new language or instrument more easily if they have an aptitude for recognizing and mimicking sounds. The skill of visual observation is the foundation for all other visual design skills, and it improves with practice and training like any other skill.