Visual Communication in 2020

The two most responded to types of communication are visual and audio. People respond to visual forms of communication every day. For example, when driving a vehicle. A stop sign is known as a visual form of communication that symbolizes the operator of the vehicle to stop. If people didn’t respond to this, it would cause accidents. The same can be said for traffic lights. Green means go, yellow means slow down, and red means stop. Traffic lights essentially direct traffic through visual communication.

                Audio is another important form of visual communication. People listen to music every day. Whether it be the radio or through a mobile device people use music in the audio form to communicate a message to the listener. This message can be used to motivate or tell a story that can help someone. Audio communication can often be paired with visual communication. A movie is a great example of this. The movie is visually communicating what the audio is saying.

                When it comes to visual communication a necessary tool is the “type” of visual it is. There are so many ways to communicate visually. What differentiates the response to visual communication is the type of visual it is. For example, stores usually have a sign in the window that indicates if the store is “open” or “closed”. If the sign says to open it visually indicates that consumers are welcome. If the sign says closed it visually indicates that consumers are not welcome at this time. A different type of visual communication could be a music video. This type of visual communication is used for entertainment instead of direction as the store signs are. If you have a favorite song it most likely has a video to accommodate it.

                Brands, companies and people use visual communication to reach their target audience. Nike is probably one of the most successful companies in the world that do this. People all over the world see the Nike swoosh logo and immediately know what company it represents. In fact, a lot of people might even say subconsciously “Just Do It”. Nike is so good at visually communication their logo with this slogan because they combine visual communication with other forms of communication.

Drake is one of the most famous music artists in the world. Mainly because he has combined audio communication with visual communication. Drake became famous because of his relatable music. When he chose to use visual communication in addition to his audio communication his fame blossomed to another level. Including music videos, cover art, and photoshoots to his music helped the world see what they were hearing.

The NFL is an organization that runs the most popular sport in the world, American football. The logo of the NFL is known around the world mainly because they brand the logo on everything they do. Every football game is visually broadcasted weekly. The teams have logos on their helmets. The NFL logo is branded on everything they own and broadcast.