Visual Stimuli is King

Different forms of communication are around us on a constant day to day basis. Whether we realize it or not, we are always responding to some form of communication.  These forms include primarily visual, audio and written forms, among others. These forms of communication can also be integrated with one another.

I respond to all different kinds of communication, but specifically I respond most often to visual communication forms. I have always been a creative person. Visual communication is the most stimulating and “real” form of communication. It caters to your primary sense as a human. Seeing a bright sunset that glows pink and yellow is much different than reading about one. A lot of people don’t have the imagination necessary to make that picture in their mind with great detail. But when you see something, there is nothing that your brain has to make up, all of the stimulus is right in front of you to absorb.

As far as visual communication, I think that the most necessary tool are images. We have all heard the saying “an image can tell a million words”. Images are simply frozen moments in time. Even though it may seem like nothing significant happens in a mere moment, it isn’t true.  Images can be snapshots in time with no manipulation, or they can be carefully composed to tell a story and invoke certain feelings. Images have become even more powerful tools as communication with the invention of photo editing software like Photoshop and Lightroom.

A brand that has a strong sense of visual communication is Jordan. It depicts a man jumping with a basketball. I respond to this logo positively because the simplicity of it makes it very easy to read and understand what it is. The way that the Jordan brand often changes the color of the logo on the shoes also shows the strength of the design because even when the color is changed, the logo is still recognizable.

The old Buffalo Sabres logo is an example of poor visual communication. For me, the biggest thing with visual communication in logos is legibility. This has to be one of the hardest logos to pick apart. The use of white, grey and dark grey creates low contrast which makes it hard to see the detail necessary to understand the logo.

Luis Vuitton has an instantly recognizable pattern. The pattern, colors, and layout all work together to create a very interesting and noticeable look. The use of brown and gold are not usually colors you see in logos, so that automatically sets it apart from other brands also. The layout of the pattern itself is also very busy and repetitive, so that makes it stimulating to the eye. Even though there is a lot of negative space, the symbols create a nice aesthetic balance.

Communication is ever-present in our daily lives. We respond to communication both voluntarily and involuntarily. The exchanging of information is possibly the most important thing in our daily lives.