Lecture 3 - Visual Communication Theories
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This document provides an overview of several theories of visual communication that are important for designers to understand when working with digital images. It discusses gestalt theory and how it explains how humans perceive visual grouping and patterns. Constructivism theory examines how viewers assemble images through a series of eye movements. Ecological theory posits that perception is directly based on environmental stimuli without additional cognitive processing. Semiotics theory analyzes how signs acquire meaning based on their iconographic, indexical, or symbolic nature. Cognitive theory explains how past memories influence visual interpretation. Compositional theories like the golden ratio and rule of thirds provide principles for creating balanced designs. The document concludes by outlining an assessment task applying these theories to photo media analysis.
Lecture 3 - Visual Communication Theories
- 1. VDIS10021 WORKING IN DIGITAL DESIGN SANGEETA JAIN
- 3. WHY THE THEORIES? • Our world is full of visuals. Visuals are an essential and expected part of the digital world too. Visual communication is communication through images and communication of ideas and information. Thus the study of the theories of visual communication is an absolute must us designers. When designers take, edit pictures or create digital images they cannot capture the entire view in their frame. They must select a part and compose that aesthetically to appear in the frame available to them. The knowledge and understanding of the theories of visual communication helps to do this proficiently and artistically.
- 4. VISUAL COMMUNICATION THEORIES There are 2 types of theories in visual communication: • Sensual Theories are raw data from nerves transmitted to brain. • Gestalt Theory • Constructivism Theory • Ecological Theory • Perceptual Theories are meanings concluded after the stimuli are received. • Semiotics Theory • Cognitive Theory
- 5. GESTALT IS A GERMAN WORD WHICH MEANS "UNIFIED WHOLE".
- 6. GESTALT THEORY • In 1910, psychologist Max Wertheimer had an insight when he observed a series of lights flashing on and off at a railroad crossing. It was similar to how the lights encircling a movie theatre marquee flash on and off. Wertheimer’s observation was that we perceive motion when there is nothing more than a rapid sequence of individual sensory events such as a series of lights flashing in sequence. • We visually and psychologically attempt to make order out of chaos, to create harmony or structure from seemingly disconnected bits of information. • This observation led to a set of principles about how we visually perceive objects.
- 7. Similarity • Similarity refers to groupings by number of characteristics can be similar: colour, shape, size, texture, etc. Thud when a viewer sees these similar characteristics, they perceive the elements to be related due to the shared characteristics. GESTALT THEORY – LAWS OF GROUPING
- 8. SIMILARITY The example above (containing 11 distinct objects) appears as single unit because all of the shapes have similarity.
- 9. Continuation • Continuance is the principle that once you start looking in a direction, you’ll continue to look in that direction until something significant catches your eye. GESTALT THEORY – LAWS OF GROUPING
- 10. CONTINUATION Continuation occurs in the example above, because the viewer's eye will naturally follow a line or curve. The smooth flowing crossbar of the "H" leads the eye directly to the maple leaf.
- 11. Closure • Closure occurs when an object is incomplete or a space is not completely enclosed. If enough of the shape is indicated, people perceive the whole by filling in the missing information. GESTALT THEORY – LAWS OF GROUPING
- 12. CLOSURE Imaginary lines called counter forms, are generated by relationships, even though there is “nothing” there.
- 13. Proximity • Proximity occurs when elements are placed close together. They tend to be perceived as a group. GESTALT THEORY – LAWS OF GROUPING
- 14. PROXIMITY The nine squares above are placed without proximity. They are perceived as separate shapes. When the squares are grouped in close proximity, unity occurs. Grouping can be achieved by colour, shape, size, tone, physical attributes etc.
- 15. Figure and Ground • The eye differentiates an object form its surrounding area. a form, silhouette, or shape is naturally perceived as figure (object), while the surrounding area is perceived as ground (background). This principle shows our perceptual tendency to separate whole figures from their backgrounds based on one or more of a number of possible variables, such as contrast, color, size, etc. GESTALT THEORY – LAWS OF GROUPING
- 17. CONSTRUCTIVISM THEORY • Julian Hochberg, a psychology professor at Columbia University found that human eyes constantly in motion as they scan an image. He came up with the Constructivism Theory to explain “eye-fixations” as a way for viewers to make sense of their own perceptions. In his experiments, Hochberg used eye tracking machines to monitor what how the participants looked at an image. In the study, by using graphic images, it was found that viewers found the largest picture on a page first, and then looked the headline for the story.
- 18. • When we look at anything, we have to piece it together. We do this through a series of rapid eye movements that assemble a blueprint of what we’re looking at, while at the same time comparing the results to memory and past associations. So, in effect, we construct images out of many narrowly focused observations. Thus the Constructivism Theory helps to understand exactly how certain visual cues are noticed and how others are not noticed. CONSTRUCTIVISM THEORY
- 19. ECOLOGICAL THEORY • This theory was founded by James J. Gibson, an American psychologist. Gibson challenged the idea that the nervous system actively constructs conscious visual perception and instead promoted ecological psychology, in which the mind directly perceives environmental stimuli without additional cognitive construction or processing. Gibson developed what he called an “ecological approach” to the study of visual perception, according to which humans perceive their environments directly, without mediation by cognitive processes or by mental entities such as sense-data. This idea was radical because it contradicted a centuries-old model of the origins of human knowledge. As Gibson himself put it, “The old idea that sensory inputs are converted into perceptions by operations of the mind is rejected.”
- 20. ECOLOGICAL THEORY • We interpret what we see through spatial properties in the environment: Surface layout, composition, lighting, motion, gradation, shape, size, solidity and scale. • Light is the way it reveals the three dimensionality of objects and scale, the way objects diminish as they recede from us are the two most important properties that we use to interpret space. • Many perceptions about size and depth require no “mental calculation”
- 21. SEMIOTICS THEORY • It is based on “semiosis,” the relationship between a sign, an object, and a meaning. Signs is simply anything that stands for something else. There are 3 types of signs with different speeds of comprehension: • Iconic – some form similarity between signs and object it represents. Easiest to understand. • Indexical – harder to interpret than icons, but still a logical connection to the thing they represent. Examples: footprint, smoke, fingerprints, crumbs • Symbolic – most abstract; no logical or representational connection to the thing they represent. Examples: letters, words, numbers, colors, gestures, flags, costumes, music etc. They are the most flexible and involve manipulation of universally understood signs. • Semiotics emphasize the importance of symbolism in the visual perception and communication.
- 22. COGNITIVE THEORY • Cognitive theory suggests that perception is not just the result of visual stimuli, but involves a series of mental processes in which we compare what we see to our memories and use those to interpret and analyse. In other words, we understand what we’re looking at most easily by comparing it to what we’re familiar with. We are constantly on the lookout for things with which we’re familiar. So we see, for example, faces in inanimate objects simply because some features look vaguely like eyes and a mouth, such as the man in the moon.
- 23. COGNITIVE THEORY Comic strip characters might bear little resemblance to real humans, yet we recognize them as such because they fit into our preconceived images of basic human characteristics.
- 24. COMPOSITIONAL THEORIES The Golden Ratio • The Golden Ratio is a mathematical ratio that describes the perfectly symmetrical relationship between two proportions. Approximately equal to a 1:1.61 ratio, the Golden Ratio can be illustrated using a Golden Rectangle and is used to create pleasing, natural looking compositions in any design work. The Renaissance artists of 15th and 16th Centuries used divine proportion to create their paintings, architecture or sculptures.
- 25. THE GOLDEN RATIO
- 26. COMPOSITIONAL THEORIES The Rule of Thirds • The rule of thirds is one of the most useful composition technique to produce images which are more engaging and better balanced. The rule of thirds is applied by aligning a subject with the guide lines and their intersection points, placing the horizon on the top or bottom line or allowing linear features in the image to flow from section to section. The idea is that an off-centre composition is more pleasing to the eye and looks more natural than one where the subject is placed right in the middle of the frame. It also encourages to make creative use of negative space, the empty areas around the subject.
- 27. THE GOLDEN RATIO
- 28. ASSESSMENT TASK 1 Visual Communication Theory & Photo Media • Conduct a research project into Visual Communication Theories to establish their role in the production of photo media. Refer to Assessment Task 1 brief for details. If you have any questions/concerns, feel free to post them on the Discussion Forum. • Due Date: End of Week 4 • Weight: 30%