When we use sound, images or feelings to communicate, they are all aspects of language. Each aspect relies on a specific human sense to convey a message or image. Those who can not see, often rely on being able to touch and feel in order to configure an idea on what they perceive. Those who can not hear, often have to rely on seeing an image or sign to understand an idea. Those same people also have to rely on using sign language which is another form of communication and is similar to signs, signifiers and the simplified.
Graphic communication is configured of designs with structural signs, designed to send a visual message to the reader. The Ellen Lupton & J. Abbot Miller essays demonstrates this idea by having both words and symbols set in between. One of the realizations that I have concluded from the reading is that I found myself understanding the vision quicker when given both words to comprehend and a sign that comprehends it for me. One of the reasons for that is unlike simple words in a language, a design places language into a vision. It’s not left in ambiguity of the mind when you are presented with the idea through eyesight.
Language and design are similar in a way where you’d be able use both as compensation, for the lack of a communication sense. If you look at an advertisement design for a cheeseburger, the first aspect your brain will see is the burger. Therefore, your mind will translate that visual into a sign of “food”, which is quicker than simply reading out that it was a cheeseburger. Both can be used to convey the same message using two different senses of communication, which would be the comprehension of a word versus an image/symbol.
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