Picture This!

Communication is inescapable and invaluable in life. As a Public Communications student, I have learned the importance of communication and its four different forms. Though preferred communication methods differ person-to-person, it is undeniable that communication, specifically visual communication and its “tools of the trade”, are interwoven and integral to the world we all live in.

There are four modes of communication: visual, verbal, audio, and written. Each of us responds to these four modes differently. Personally, I have a greater response to audio and written communication because they allow me to translate aural messages into visual communication in my mind, helping me to retain and recollect the transmitted information easier and more reliably than I would looking at a picture or a person speaking. Written communication is similar. Reading written messages gives me the opportunity to create my own visuals, imagine my own emotions and senses, and form clearer opinions on the information I am given without any outside influence.

Visual communication then, at least for me, would be nearly ineffective without images to convey its messages, regardless of whether visual communication happens in one’s mind or in front of one’s eyes. Advertisements use beautiful models, shocking visuals, and pictures of everyday occurrences to evoke certain responses from audiences, even more so than words can ever communicate. This is because visuals are instant and easier for the advertiser to manipulate reader reactions to. For example, the words “smoking kills” cannot create the same emotional response in a reader that a silent commercial depicting a dying smoker flat-lining in the hospital surrounded by loved ones can produce.

Visual communication experts, Disney for example, have logos that are symbolic and easily recognized. Disney’s castle logo communicates a sense of fantasy and adventure that draws young kids in, and draws older audiences in with its nostalgia. The Red Cross is another example, with its logo symbolizing health, recovery, and salvation from disaster or catastrophe. As an organization dedicated to health and wellness, the logo communicates the Red Cross’ purpose well. The Center for Disease Control is yet another example of an entity with strong visual communication skills. Take one look at a nonsmoking or HIV advertisement from them, and the shocking visuals the CDC constructs communicate to readers loud and clear the message being presented. 

Though communication serves to transmit messages to receivers, communication has several different forms of disseminating messages, with different individuals preferring different forms. Personally speaking, I prefer receiving audio and written communication, as they give me greater liberty to create my own visual communication and retain the information presented to me. Visual communication, regardless of how it appears, is still an invaluable component of communication. A picture can communicate more than a thousand words could ever dream of communicating, and companies like Disney, the Red Cross, and the Center for Disease Control have certainly capitalized on this. Thus communication is broad as well as specific and individual, and visual communication particularly is incredibly important to communication as a whole.