Visual Language

1. COMMUNICATION PROCESS

ContextPlace and time

SenderIt is the person who creates an image in order to communicate

MessageIt is the content of the image- its information

The receptor It is the person who decodes the message to understand it

The code They are the rules and

norms that make the message understandable

The channel or medium - It is the vehicle or means used to transmit the information

The Function of the images

Informative - Content is transmitted in an objective way

AestheticImages that communicate mainly beauty and harmony

The Function of the images

The Function of the images

Expressive Images stimulate the receiver’s feelings. The point is not what we see

in the image, but the emotions we feel when we look at it

ExhortativeThey try to persuade the receiver to do something, to buy a

product, to believe an idea or to do a task.

The Function of the images

Narrative The image tells a story

The Function of the images

Social

The Function of the images

2. Basic elements in visual language

Dot LinePlane

Colour Texture Volume

3. Signifier and signified

Signifier: any material thing that signifies, e.g., words on a page, a facial expression, an image.

Signified or meaning: the concept that a signifier refers to.

4. Visual Signs

Sign: anything which can represent a thing or an idea

• Index / Indexical Signs: signs where the signifier is caused by the signified, e.g., smoke signifies fire.

• Icon / Iconic sings: signs where the signifier resembles the signified

• Symbol /Symbolic (arbitrary) signs: signs where the relation between signifier and signified is purely conventional and culturally specific.

SImbols

5. Iconicity of an image

6. Types of images::analytic image

Realistic images

Antonio López.Gran vía

Figurative images

Paul CézanneLos jugadoresde cartas. 1896

Abstract images

Chema Madoz.