When creating a visual resume, being able to think visually is of vital importance. What do we mean by thinking visually? Visual thinking is defined as thinking in images or pictures. It is the process of using your imagination to translate verbal information into mental images.
While this isn't a difficult task for those with artistic training, it may pose a challenge for those of you who are used to thinking in words. Believe it or not, there are actually exercises you can do to improve your ability to think in pictures! Check out the Visual Thinking Art blog for ideas on how to improve your visual thinking skills.
As you work on your visual resume and begin to translate your professional and educational experience into images, consider ways to use visual metaphors to describe your experience. Some metaphors that have been used in visual resumes are the time line, the subway or bus station, a road map, or a movie. Some creative individuals have used presentations or slide shows to showcase their professional history. Remember, you don't necessarily have to have outstanding art making skills. You just need to know the elements of good design, page layout, and how to design with type. If you don't have the ability or time to create images yourself, consider using images from Flickr Creative Commons.
Malcolm Grear Designers specializes in the creation of graphic images for identity, information, branding, marketing, and education. Consider the two images below and the one for the Olympics at the top of the post (by Malcolm Grear). What verbal message is being communicated in each image. Are these effective graphic images? How could they be improved?
These two images by Malcolm Grear seem very different from each other. I know the original post said that there were three images, and maybe I'm missing something, but I only see two. So I'll comment on the two I see: the religious piece (the subject of which I know a little something about) and the remembrance piece (the subject of which I am not familiar at all).
ReplyDeleteThe religious piece is very cool. I enjoy the way it incorporates so many symbolic images into one cohesive logo. I don't know if that logo (as a whole) is used to represent any particular church or denomination, but the ties to Christianity are unmistakable. Highlighting each section in dark blue really helps it stand out from the light grey. The symbol for the trinity is particularly interesting because it is not directly depicted in the graphic. I wonder if the graphic could stand alone and still convey all of these meanings without the highlighting. Then again, maybe that's why it is never shown standing alone.
The remembrance poster appears to be an attempt to preserve the memories of individuals named Frida and Diego. I assume the yellow flower is of some significance (perhaps an icon of a performance of some sort). It also seems like these two people were from another culture, due to the names and the colorful letters. I get the feeling from the poster that they did something back in the days when black and white photos were the only option, and in 2008 they retired, died, or had an anniversary of some kind.
The religious image is very structured. It appears quite calculated and symmetrical. The remembrance image is passionate. It shows the individuals' faces and their colorful names flowing across the page. I have no suggestions for improvement, but I can say that I like the first image more, just because I find that kind of strategic representative graphic (like the Olympic graphics) more appealing than the other.
The verbal messages are communicated well in Malcolm Grear's images. In the 2012 Olympic images, the verbal message is each sport that will participate in the 2012 Olympic games. It is very impressive how he took simple figures and elaborated on them to make expressive images!! I can imagine that the symbols will also be used as landmarks that represent where the competitions will take place at the Olympic Games. The images are very effective and can have multiple uses: t-shirts, banners, landmarks, pamphlets, etc. The creator can improve the images by putting the name of the sport somewhere along with the pictures just in case people don't understand the visual.
ReplyDeleteThe religious images were more difficult to understand even when highlighted in blue. If it weren't for the text under the images, I wouldn't have been able to see the highlighted image for what according to the text. With the text, it is more clear that the highlighted images are representative figures, symbolic of the christian faith. What makes the images effective is the text at the bottom. I am not sure what can improve the pictures, however, maybe the creator can use a different color for each image to keep things less consistent. Personally, I began to get tired of looking at the images and the highlighted images began to look the same!
The last picture's visual message is self-explanatory by it's title. The picture is a memoir of the person or person's who past away. The message communicated doesn't seem more complicated than that. This picture was effective, however, it could have had more to symbolic features explaining who the person or person's where: goals, careers, what they did while living, etc.
I have always considered myself as not being a visual person; I am someone who likes to read and look at different resources to make an understanding of small things. However, I discovered that I was oblivious to my own thinking strategies and processing. I am a visual person; it is true that I don’t use it in the usual way most people do but I am one of them. My whole social life is built on visual interpretations. I am a person how likes to observe and often do that unconsciously. I am always looking for peoples’ reaction, feelings, and attitudes by observing the visual cues they send all the time. For example, the remembrance image portrayed a number of feelings and impressions (death, happy life, colorful times, passion, sadness, and even hope) that were evoked by the shapes, colors, and contrast techniques used by the creator. This reminds me of what Malamed refers to as bottom-up and top-down processing. First the colors, contrast and shapes unconsciously grasp my visual attention as a viewer. After that, my brain tries to process the information and give meaning to the presented features which is the top-down processing. My brain uses my experiences, knowledge and expectations to assign meaning to the plain colors, shapes, and features to end up with an explanation to this visual.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Olympics visual, I keep thinking of it as a good rehearsal strategy that could be used by students to remember the different sports presented in such big events. The presented visuals should help the encoding process where this information gets associated with other stored knowledge in the long-term memory via rehearsal. The contrasting colors and the smooth shapes make good external stimulus for the visual memory. Moreover, the visuals demands logical cognitive load because of the simplicity in presentation and the absence of the extraneous cognitive load. However, an addition that I believe would make a difference is an audio presentation of each visual (Dual coding is better for future retrieval of information)
The religious piece didn’t convey any feelings; it was so flat to the point where I felt that it was meant to show how you can spend less time creating different symbols using computer software and this one rich symbol. The colors and the edges didn’t work for me; consistent colors make it very difficult to see through the visuals and the rigid edges made the whole visual lifeless; like Jessica said, I wouldn’t have understood the different symbols if it wasn’t for the explanatory words. Changing the colors to bring more feelings to the visual is something I hope will solve the problem since this is a religious piece that should move peoples’ hearts when they see it.
Each of the three visuals listed in the posting have a different look and feel, which is not to say one is better than the other. However, I have enjoyed reading the previous comments to see how each person felt differently about each visual. I often do not take the time to analyze visual information to the extent that I have done with these three images. I agree with Sue that I have also found that I am more of a visual person than I originally thought.
ReplyDeleteWith the image used in the Olympics, I was amazed at how I saw the action within each still photo. Even the sports that I am not as familiar with I could picture the athlete competing. Regarding Jessica's comment, I think each picture could be used as a landmark that represents the event locations. I also enjoyed the additional pictures posted on the blog which utilized text and vibrant colors to advertise the events.
The religious picture was not as "fun" for me. I agree with previous comments that I became bored with it and honestly did not look at the second row until Aaron commented on the trinity symbol. Even though it used the blue color as a contrast, the lack of vibrant colors caused me to overlook the image quickly.
The final picture did contain lots of vibrant colors, and even though I am not familiar with the content, the colors did make me pause and "take in" the picture. From the picture, I gathered that someone was creating a play in order to honor the person on the photo (because she has retired or passed away). I enjoyed the photo overall. The only suggestion would be to coordinate the colors of the text.
Overall, these pictures would good examples to show unique differences between pictures.
The Olympic image communicates the sports that will be competed in and the images themselves give a depiction of the physical action that takes place in each sport such as football, gymnastics, etc. At each new Olympics there are different graphics than those seen the previous years, depicting the sports and it is always interesting to see what they come up with for that year’s Olympics. For me that is pretty clear but thinking of someone who has not played or watched sports may need something more to understand the pictures. Possibly adding more elements to the sports images may make them a little bit more distinct in the differences between each sport.
ReplyDeleteThe religious images communicated a lot. Each portion of the picture made sense and explained what each part represented. Definitely could see the book, the trinity, the fish and etc. This would be lost on those who have not studied or are a part of this faith and what these symbols actually mean though, but for the purposes of the breakdown of the symbols are good. Something that I think that is missing is the name if there is one for this symbol.
The last image of Frida and Diego I think looks great, but I am unsure of what this actually means. I found myself wondering if these people were dead since the top of the image says remembering. Or it could mean remembering 2008 from the perspective of Frida and Diego. The other thought that crossed my mind was these individuals were artists and there would be an exhibiting remembering their work. So for the most part to me the image can have a number of different meanings. I think a couple of more words at the bottom maybe would clear up what this image is meant for.
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