Visual Literacy: The College Course
Richard Wilde and Judith Wilde
Visual Literacy, the college course, has as its goal the creation of work that deals with the understanding of signs, symbols, iconography, typography, photography, illustration—in short, the world of visual imagery created to communicate ideas and information to an intended audience. It evolved out of a frustration with not having students reach their creative potential, which in turn was the impetus for the challenge of developing experimental design projects in an effort to teach this complex and elusive subject.
What adds to this conundrum is that effective visual communication of today often becomes tomorrow’s cliché and what must be factored into this equation is an in-depth knowledge of pop culture that adds context. Quality work is determined by how the designer articulates the synthesis of form (visual) and content (intended message) into a unified whole. This is the goal.
It became clear that in order to move students from the world of cliché into the realm of the unknown, which would prompt questioning, it was necessary to invent assignments to accomplish this. For all projects, a series of assignment sheets are prepared in advance for students to work on. The following are two of many assignments that move you along the path.
In the Sound Problem, students are asked to depict a series of twelve sounds. Requiring multiple solutions ensures greater possibility for success. Each solution is executed in a 4” × 4” area. Titled beneath each area are sounds, such as the sound of thunder, popcorn popping, making love on a creaky bed, a busy diner, and the like.
For this problem, students cannot rely on timeworn cliché solutions because they simply don’t exist. Students, perhaps for the first time, are thrown back on their heels and have to invent formal equivalents. Doodling and playing around are encouraged. Solving the twelve given problems offers students an opportunity to discover solutions ranging from literal to symbolic to abstract. One’s visual vocabulary expands through these discoveries.
Another project is the Notebook Page, in which students are given twenty-one rectangles in the configuration of a grade school classroom. They are asked to create twenty-one images representing either psychological aspects or physical characteristics of children in a grade school classroom using only a palette of blue and red lines, with the added requirement of maintaining the integrity of the notebook page. In solving this problem, students are given the liberty of altering the thickness of the line, changing its direction, altering the space between lines, and so on. Students title each solution—for example, nervous, shy, smartest, nearsighted— to help clarify the message and aid in the understanding of the interaction between words and images.
The best solutions suggest or imply the intended message. Given the interplay between the title and the image, the audience is, in effect, asked to complete the intended message.
Also, the intent of the assignment is to move students away from a literal approach, which is a habitual way of problem solving, into working metaphorically.
For these types of assignments, it must be understood that the best an educator can do is create conditions where discovery is possible. Results are never a guarantee, yet it should be kept in mind that one can learn from continual failure. The journey of failure becomes the ever-changing blueprint of success, where one develops sensitivity to what is not working. Examples of failure may include being too literal, too abstract, too convoluted a message, too stylized, too clichéd, poorly composed, dated, overstated, understated, conceptually weak, difficult to read, politically incorrect, not solving the problem, lacking impact, inappropriate use of color, borrowed interest, incorrect use of appropriated images, and the like.
Eventually one comes to realize that formulas don’t exist, and one moves into the realm of not knowing, which represents an opening to new possibilities. This leads to questioning, which now becomes the definitive tool for the graphic designer.
So, one must remember to struggle in a rightful way (where acceptance of one’s shortcomings is recognized), whereby failure, in turn, is used as a building block. This is the classic journey of a design apprentice. Through questioning, one moves into an area that one previously didn’t have access to. What doesn’t work no longer becomes a roadblock, because it’s where questions arise, and where frustration once lived now becomes a world of inquiry. Using failure constructively becomes an asset and a virtue. This subtle shift marks the designer’s turning point in the creation of visually literate work.