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A Primer of Visual Literacy 1973 194 pages Complementary Texts Charles Kostelnick and David D.
Roberts Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen Keywords Copyright © 2000-2007 Isabel Pedersen |
Dondis provides the non-designer with the basic grammar of visual communication. She uses a set of terms or Elements of the visual process and manipulates it in light of several concepts. These Elements are the raw materials of all levels of visual intelligence (15-16): ·
Dot - the minimal visual unit, pointer, marker of space ·
Line - the fluid, restless articulator of form, in the probing
looseness of the sketch and the tighter technical plan ·
Shape - the basic shapes, circle, square, triangle, and all their
endless variations, combinations and permutations, planal and dimensional ·
Direction - the thrust of movement that incorporates and reflects the
character of the basic shapes, circular, diagonal and perpendicular ·
Tone - the presence or absence of light, by which we see ·
Colour – the coordinate of tone with the added component of chroma,
the most emotional and expressive visual element ·
Texture – optical or tactile, the surface character of visual
materials ·
Scale or Proportion – the relative size and measurement ·
Dimension and Motion – both implied and expressed Techniques of visual communication use these elements on a continuum between harmony, balance, order, equilibrium on the one hand and contrast, disorder, and imbalance on the other (16). Gestalt psychology heavily influences Dondis and thinkers like Rudolph Arnheim. She uses principles of Gestalt psychology to explain the way the mind orders and interprets visual messages. Among the many interesting points that she makes, Dondis claims that many of our non-visual sensory input is processed in a visual way. She writes that “most of our textual experience is optical and not tactile. Not only is texture faked rather convincingly in plastics and printed materials and faked fur, but also, much of what we see painted, photographed and filmed convincingly presents texture that is not there” (56). This argument for synaesthesia extends Dondis’ claim that visual literacy is a capacity for which the human subject has great power. Even when we are “touching”, we are actually always “seeing” as well. Lastly, Dondis does attempt to place her theory in a
cultural context, however, she does not go to the extent that Kress and Van Leeuwen
do in their much more extensive work.
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