1. Visual Literacy

2. How do we read a picture book?
What is happening?
1. Representational Meaning
How do we interact?
2. Interactive Meaning
How has it been constructed?
3. Compositional Meaning

3. 1. Representational Meaning
Who are the represented participants?
What shapes have been used?
What colours have been used?
What is the reading path?
What are the vectors?
Is there any symbolism?

4. Colours and Shapes Colours Shapes Happy Sad Round Sharp
List colours that would show these emotions. List emotions the shapes would show.
Colours
Shapes
Happy
Sad
Round
Sharp

5. Colour symbolism: Pink for girls, white for innocence

6. Vectors: Lines along which our eyes travel [Real or imaginary lines]

7. Vectors: Imaginary lines between eyes and objects
Name the vectors….

8. 2. Interactive Meaning Demand/Offer of eyes What angle has been used?
Is there anything in the background?
What is the social distance with the reader?

9. Interactive Meaning
Demand: Looks Straight at the Viewer and demands a Relationship and a Response

10. Interactive Meaning
Offer: When the subject of the image is not gazing directly at the viewer. There is no demand for a relationship with the viewer, only an offer.

11. Interactive Meaning
Social Distance: How close are you with the subject? The reader will feel involved or detached.
What angle is this?
Close Up Shot

12. Decreases our involvement with subject
Interactive Meaning
What angle is this?
What does this say about social distance?
Medium – Long Shot
Decreases our involvement with subject

13. Interactive Meaning
Oblique angle: ‘Side on’ Makes the reader become an observer. You are not ‘part of the scene’ you are an outsider.

14. He has power, looking down at us.
Interactive Meaning
What angle is this?
What does this say about social distance?
Low Angle
He has power, looking down at us.

15. 3. Compositional Meanings
What is the information value?
What is the salient image?
What framing has been used?

16. Compositional Meaning
Information Value
Top: Is the ideal – what the product will give you, what all people want.
Bottom: Reality – what you need to get the ideal

17. Compositional Meaning
Information Value
What is the ideal?
What is the reality?

18. Compositional Meaning
Information Value
What is the ideal?
What is the reality?

19. Compositional Meaning
Salient Image: The biggest image within a picture  usually shows what is most important or to grab the audience’s attention.
What is the salient image?
What does it tell us?

20. Compositional Meaning
What is the salient image?
What does it tell us?

21. Compositional Meaning
Framing: A shot can be “framed” as a close-up, but turn out to be a zoom-in within a much bigger context. Framing creates “boundaries” around the visual information we receive.
What does the framing tell us about how this man would be feeling?

22. Compositional Meaning
What does the open/large frame say about how this dog is feeling?