Week 5 Visual Communication Paper

Visual communication is important to businesses everywhere. We are affected by it in our lives every day. Visual communication can be basic elements, typography, photography, film, television, comics, cartoons, animation, computers, and graphics. I will be exploring several of these topics. I was influenced in my design by several different zoos that I have visited in the past. My map is not by any means even close to the attention to detail that is displayed on these maps. However, my map does consist of information graphics, symbols and signs, shapes and colors, images, and typography. I will go into further detail of each of these as you read on.

Information graphics are described by the New World Encyclopedia as “visual representations of information, data or knowledge.” “These graphics are used anywhere where complex information needs to be explained quickly and clearly.” Information graphics can be seen as far back as the prehistoric days. Cavemen used to draw maps and keep an inventory of their animals on the cave walls. The image that I am presenting is an information graphic. The map is a complex idea of a zoo. I have created a simple layout, so that the public can locate the animals easily. Instead of having visitors come and have no idea on where to visit the mammals. My map design is there to help aid them in their viewing. I have not been to a zoo where there was not just one exhibit. Zoos have several different exhibits. My next task was to come up with an idea that would describe these exhibits quickly, clearly, and easy to understand. The idea I created was signs.

Any type of business has some sort of sign. This could be anywhere from an open or closed sign, hours of operation, and the name of a business. As Berger (2008) describes “it is one of the basic concepts of semiotics. A sign is anything that can be used to stand for something else” (p. 244). Now semiotics is “the science of signs that examine the way meaning is produced and...