Reflection Essay on Visual Communication

In maintaining effective communication, utilizing visual communication is an important part of advertising and/or expressing ideas without actually saying them. Visual Communication can be best utilized in a classroom. Shapes and colors, charts and graphs, and cartoons and illustrations are examples of the approaches to visual communication. Visuals of business progress or digress should be clearly communicated through any visual communication that relates to the operation of the business. Visual communication can be learned and is used at an early age.

For example, in a seventh grade math class, the students are taught the concept of order of operations. There is a message (acronym) that the students learn for each letter of the main math operations (parentheses, exponents, multiply, divide, add, and subtract). The message is Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally is given along with a visual (picture) of an aunt. When the students see the picture of the aunt, the students automatically remember the steps to order of operations to solve the math problem.

Including colors in this message also helps the students to remember the first letters of the math words. Shapes and Colors Shapes and colors are used to accent and show contrasts in the message. According to Armar and JoAnna Almasude, web design, “Color considerations may also include the meanings of the colors and the moods that they could evoke. Viewers may have emotional, esthetic, biological responses to the colors of design. ” (Web Design, 2002). Using colors effectively will convey a clear and concise message that is meaningful.

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In Appendix A, the acronym Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally uses shapes and colors to convey the message and show the process in using order of operations. Charts and Graphs Charts and graphs are examples of approaches to visual communication. Using charts and graphs in visual communication will convey the idea without having to include a lot of numbers. Including color in the charts and graphs will show the differences and result in the understanding of what the message the chart or graph is trying to convey. Appendix A also falls in the category of charts and graphs.

The figure shows the process of order of operations by using shapes, colors, and, arrows to give the reader the direction on how to solve the problem using order of operations. Cartoons and Illustrations Cartoons and Illustrations are examples of approaches to visual communication. Using cartoons and illustrations will give the reader a picture of the idea that is being expressed. In using Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, Appendix B uses a cartoon illustration of an aunt to help the students remember the process of order of operations.

According to Professor Paul Lester, he stated, “Images are remembered by thinking about them in words. Whether pictures are not a language because there is no easily definable and reproducible alphabet or because the elements that make up a picture do not follow a discursive, linear flow, most experts agree that images are a collection of signs and as such, become a language when read in the mind” (Syntactic Theory, 2006). In other words, cartoons and illustrations are best used when related to words. This is reason why the students should be able to remember the process through vision and memory.

In conclusion, visual communication plays an important role in visual and cognitive understanding. It can be used for almost every aspect of representation especially in the classroom. Shapes and colors, charts and graphs, and cartoons and illustrations are examples of the approaches to visual communication. I feel that cartoons and illustrations are the most effective for of visual communication. In using cartoons and illustrations to express ideas or thoughts, they can be conveyed without the use of words. However, including words will help show the correlation that what is seen is believed.

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