Analphabet

I just love answering back people who suggest that visual communications is the new analphabet communication of the future.

Original Message:

Just a lightning note to thank you for inviting me to your network! I noticed in your resume that you have experience in visual communication. I often wonder what can be communicated through visual communication: is it only emotions? Do you believe one could translate a philosophical text such as Descartes’ Metaphysical Meditations into visual content? I remember reading once that images are the language of analphabets…

I am personally fascinated by the practice of communicating visually, which to me implies the sacrosanct notion of efficiency, especially in an era where time is in short supply: if a picture can truly convey a thousand words, then visual communication is the language of the future, whereby one second pictures will start replacing one thousand second texts…but the question remains: can all texts be replaced?

I believe our growing dependence upon visual communication is merely the reflection of the fact that we live in a time-pressed society…and to think that this was supposed to be “just a lightning note”...I should have sent you a picture! :)

My Reply:

Many different messages can be communicated through visual communications, not just emotions... I don't believe it is that simplistic, it really depends on what you wish to communicate and how you go about it. Typography for example is written and can be communicated in many visually appealing ways using fonts, colors, shapes, sizes and angles, but at the end the message is written but displayed in a visually compelling way. I think in our times visual communications is at its strongest, but that should not mean that photographs or images should begin replacing books. However, if you read a beautiful description of a location, with rich words that take you into another realm, and then you discover it in a photograph, it just adds to what you had imagined. This is why they turn books into movies, though mostly unsuccessfully, since four hundred pages of words are difficult to translate into two hours of a movie. Movies are also a form of visual communication, accompanied by sound, music, and a dialogue using words-again not just visual elements.

So visual communications encompasses many forms, and a visual communicator ensures that the visual aspect is aesthetic,sends out a message to its public in the best way, and most of all evokes an emotion. But the visual communicator can also work with a team of other specialists. I personally believe that a beautiful image without an equally beautiful text can be empty, but can't the same be said for the reverse? I think it goes both ways... God gave us two eyes and two ears, to observe and listen more- versus one mouth; I think predominantly, we are meant to be observers and listeners.

But it all ended so harmoniously with this wonderful reply...

I really appreciate your insightful response! Kanji seems to be the perfect illustration that word-image combinations can be extremely powerful. As you suggest, visual communication is not merely the art of talking to the eyes but rather to all senses; in
that respect, music too could be described as visual communication since at times melodies can be incredibly scenic, not to say cinematic. One of my projects at the moment is a luxury fashion and lifestyle magazine and the most challenging aspect of it, I feel, is the creation of its visual identity: as I wrote in my previous message, I find that visual communication is a truly captivating topic that requires extraordinary sensitivity and vision - to say the least :)