Chapter Seventeen: Creativity and Visual Design
Pictures, graphs, tables, and charts enhance presentations and documents. They add interest and clarify points vividly. Basic design principles allow communicators to present visuals that deliver quantitative and qualitative information quickly. Visuals need to be appropriate to the tone and style of the presentation, document, and web page, reflecting both the purpose of the communication and corporate culture. They also need to be placed and sized in a manner that facilitates emphasis and comprehension, and does not distract from the overall message.
Chapter Outline
I. Designing Messages with Visuals: Visual images enhance the many different messages that business communicators design and disseminate. Visual designs can be used effectively in oral presentations, training sessions, web pages, reports, proposals, and many other channels of business communication. Since people understand visual cues more readily than verbal cues, visuals can help explain complex issues. They can also condense intricate thought into a convenient package.
a. What is Visual Design? The process of generating and structuring messages using drawings, photos, and other graphics. Visuals used to convey a message must match the message meaning. Visuals stimulate interest, clarify, summarize, and support persuasion.
i. Visual channels: Include all visual imagery that can be incorporated into a business message.
ii. Visual elements: Include lines, shapes, colors, and text.
b. How Do I Choose Visual Channels? The first step in selecting a visual channel is to consider all the information you want to share with your audience. Then determine what aspects of the information may be simplified, clarified, or condensed with visuals. Once you have decided what information is best presented pictorially, you need to assess what channel can convey the information most effectively and economically in the context you plan to communicate.
II. Basic Design Principles: There are several elements you must consider in developing any visual message. One way to synthesize all these elements is to use the grid approach.
a. Designing with a Grid Approach: Organizes the placement of visual elements on a page or within a graphic design frame. Grids enable you to determine the space around or between elements you will use and the width of certain items.
b. Contrast: The varied level of difference and emphasis among visual symbols, shapes, colors, or tones.
c. Balance: Balance is symmetry, or an equal distribution of weight within the frame of the design.
d. Rhythm: Refers to the positioning of elements that allows the viewer’s eyes to gaze at certain aspects of the design before others.
e. Unity: Involves choosing visual elements that belong together and are similar, are in close proximity, or are pointed in the same direction.
f. Using Color: There are three essential characteristics of color that communication designers need to understand.
i. Hue
ii. Saturation: Involves the concentration of color purity and richness.
iii. Brightness: Is associated with the degree of intensity and brilliance of a color as it reflects the light.
g. Using Shapes: A shape is any form or design with height and width. Shapes can frame designs or other elements, guide the eye, organize, and symbolize visual designs.
i. Geometric shapes: Include the three basics: a square, circle, and triangle.
ii. Natural shapes: Are found in the natural world or constructed from ideas.
iii. Abstract shapes: Are often culturally specific symbols such as company logos or icons (abstract shapes created to look like the object they represent) that communicate visual messages.
III. Infographics: Informational or explanatory graphic images.
a. Quantitative: Visual designs that present numerical or statistical information in a condensed visual format.
i. Tables: Are square or rectangular in design and are used to present specific figures or narrative data.
ii. Line and area charts: Shows trends, increases or decreases in quantities or events over time, and comparisons and relationships among numbers. Area charts are a more dramatic version of a line chart because the area under the line is shaded to the baseline below.
iii. Pie charts: Are circular in design and demonstrate the relationship or distribution of parts, or slices (items), to the whole.
iv. Bar graphs: Present shaded rectangles (bars) side by side for visual comparisons.
v. Pictograms: Use graphic symbols to represent items for measurement or comparison.
vi. Gantt chart: Use bars on a grid, but Gantt chart bars exclusively represent scheduled lengths of time for the performance of activities on a particular project.
b. Qualitative: Include narrative or conceptual information presented using appealing visual formats.
i. Flow charts: Use boxes with arrows or lines to connect them. They usually demonstrate the relationships between and sequencing of procedures, processes, and people. The most common type of flow chart is an organizational chart (depicts the chain of company command from top to bottom). Pert charts (refers to a type of flow chart that outlines a process) is another common form of flow chart.
ii. Maps: Used to present geographic locations, proximity, or distance.
iii. Photographs: The process of capturing permanent images on film for eventual processing and printing onto special paper.
iv. Drawings and diagrams: Drawings are hand-produced lines using ink, pen or pencil to represent images on paper. Diagrams are a type of drawing used for visual description that explain how a process or procedure works or show the details of how a product or machine is produced, assembled, or used.
IV. Developing Visuals: Many infographics used for business presentations, reports, and other documents are designed using computer graphic software programs. Most work processing programs have templates which are predesigned models or sample layouts of business memos, resumes, reports, and letters. Although most documents can be prepared using standard word processing programs and that allow importing of infographics from other programs, more complex documents and documents that include many graphics may look more professional when prepared with a desktop publishing or presentation program. In any case, graphics must be integrated into a document or presentation in a manner that enhances rather than detracts from the message meaning.
V. Integrating Visuals: Integrating visuals into business documents and presentations involves determining the size, visibility, and placement of visual elements, choosing colors and shapes, numbering and labeling tables and figures, and citing the sources of data.
a. Size, Visibility and Placement: Size will vary depending on the size of your audience. To determine visibility, visit the site at which you will be speaking and check the visuals from the perspective of the audience. If your visual will appear in a written document, it should be placed as close to the description in the text as possible.
b. Numbers, Labels and Titles: For written documents, each visual needs to be numbered in consecutive order. Numbering allows you to refer to visuals and allows viewers to locate them.
c. Give Credit Where It’s Due: Just as you would cite the source of written information in a bibliography, references, or works cited, you must also indicate the source of your visuals.
In Text Exercises
§ Creative Challenge: The “Look”
Looking at the quality of the materials, fonts, lap cards, and other components of various types of journals gives students insight both into how graphics are used in professional communications and the impressions various options give. Students can compare and evaluate various types of journals on the basis of their “look,” determining what audience the journal is targeting and the formal or informal nature of the journal.
§ Word on the Web: Web Page Design
Many services on the web offer free member web pages, and some students already have web pages of their own, as well as experience with Microsoft Front Page or Dreamweaver. Subjects for web pages can vary according to student interests, but students may choose to create a career portfolio web page that reflects their accomplishments and achievements. Putting such material on the web gives students greater freedom to represent visually projects completed, for example, and the website can be included on their résumé.
§ Creative Challenge: Balance, Rhythm, and Unity
Analyzing visuals in advertisements reveals that there’s a lot more going on than is obvious at first glance. Students should try to notice how their eyes are drawn across the image, and what aspects of the image cause them to do that: color, emotional reaction, background shapes, etc. They may also be surprised at where the focal point of the image is. Ask them to speculate, especially if it doesn’t seem apparent at first, why the image was designed in this way. What are the unconscious impacts the image is trying to make on the viewer?
§ Jump In!: Quantitative Graphic Style
The purpose of this exercise is to show students how the same information looks when represented in different formats. Ask students which format would work best for applications like sales, shareholder’s reports, interoffice informational reports, etc. Depending on the intended audience, answers should vary. Excel is an excellent software tool for this assignment because it organizes information into charts and graphs with relative ease.
§ Creative Challenge: Organizational Charts
The class may prepare for this exercise by designing a fictional company, determining ahead of time the size, management structure, and names and types of positions necessary for the company to function properly. Alternatively, students can research a company, determine its corporate structure, and create an organizational chart that shows the hierarchy of that business.
§ Jump In!: Image Size
The images selected don’t have to be images of the classmates, of course, but the student should select images that reflect something in the description they accompany. Students may also vary placement of the images and reflect on the effect that has, as well.
Business Communication Projects
- The purpose of this assignment is to provide the students a chance to discuss the differences between different visual aids, and how they may be used effectively. The students’ analyses should explain why a particular visual channel is well suited to a particular application, and why it may be inferior in other instances.
- This exercise gives students a chance to follow the old adage, “a picture’s worth a thousand words.” The visual should reduce the number of words otherwise necessary to communicate the message, and the visual should have some intrinsic interpretation value; it should not require additional words in order to determine what exactly the visual is. For example, from a quantitative standpoint, a graph would be an excellent way to communicate a message with a minimal amount of words.
- This assignment is designed to give students a chance to pick the correct adjective to use when creating a visual. The students’ visuals should correctly highlight the aspect of the message that the visual is trying to convey. For example, the increase in speed of a microprocessing chip over the last four years should be described in terms of speed (such as between a Model T and a Ferrari), rather than in terms of size (the new chips are 10 times better than the old chips, so the contrast is between a pickup truck and a tractor trailer). Be sure to emphasize the importance of describing the right thing when creating/selecting a visual.
- This exercise should enable students to focus on applying qualitative infographics to a presentation. Because the students need to communicate a lot of conceptual, rather than quantitative information, qualitative infographics allow a student to incorporate photographs (What do the parachutes look like? How large are they? etc.), flowcharts, diagrams, charts (such as the cost/benefits of parachutes), etc. into their presentation to essentially “paint a picture” of the benefits of the parachutes.
- The objective of this assignment is to provide the students with an opportunity to identify some of the key differences in audiences that affect the design of visuals. Compare the students’ advertisements with similar national advertising campaigns.
- This exercise will provide a chance for the students to select/design visuals for an application where clarity is the utmost objective of the visuals. The visuals should enable a user to grasp the essentials in a very short period of time. Emphasize the importance of similarity in styles, as the subject matter of the different procedures is related (health and safety awareness), and a user should not need to separately decipher the format of each infographic prior to using them.
- The students’ answers should follow the guidelines in the chapter for using the grid approach when creating visuals. The visuals should be balanced so that any grid placed on top of the completed visual will prove the sectional alignment and placement of the items in the visual.
- This exercise provides the students with an opportunity to use quantitative infographics in their presentation. The infographics should be readily comprehendible, and make use of a grid in the layout of the graphs.
- The purpose of this exercise is to give the students a chance to break a document into various related components, and create a presentation that communicates the same message as the document. Remember, the documents being used are quite clear as they are, and the presentation should not embellish or take away from the original message communicated in the document.
- The students’ responses should critique the visual elements used in the textbook, and explain how their perceptions and moods were affected by the visuals. The responses should also comment on the overall effectiveness of those visuals. Did the perceptions and moods of the students align with those the author was trying to create (based on the actual written text)?
Discussion Questions
1. In what ways could the design of a visual distract or confuse viewers? In what ways could the presentation of the visual distract viewers?
Visuals designed without attention to color, unity, rhythm, and balance may be difficult for viewers to focus on and interpret correctly. Visuals that are crammed together or placed haphazardly will also be difficult for viewers to concentrate on.
2. Why is it necessary to introduce visuals and provide some interpretation for viewers? In what ways does this strategy share basic business communication concepts described in earlier chapters?
Viewers “read” images in much the same way they read written words or perceive sounds. In order to control the viewers’ interpretation of the visual, the designer must point out what is significant about it and relate it to context. This control is similar to the strategies mentioned in earlier chapters that show how messages can be sent with a minimum of noise.
3. Why is it important for business professionals to understand the design and use of visuals in reports, proposals, and presentations?
Visuals are meant to enhance information delivered in another format, like presentations, proposals, and reports. It can also summarize or present statistical data that is hard to describe in narrative form. Since the goal of all messages is clarity for all audiences, business professionals need to use visuals that clarify messages.
4. Why are contrast, balance, rhythm, and unity important components of visual design?
Differences in the use of contrast, balance, rhythm, and unity have an effect on how the viewer will perceive the visual message. Most images evoke an emotional or personal response on some level; even the colors used in bar graphs and pie charts imply something about the tone of the message and the corporate culture from which it comes. An asymmetrical design implies something about the message it conveys, just as the level of contrast and coordination of images project an image.
5. What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative visuals? Consider content and purpose as well as design principles.
Qualitative visuals like flow charts, maps, photography, drawings, and diagrams convey narrative or conceptual ideas. These are often culturally dependent. Quantitative visuals like tables, line and area, pie charts, bar, pictograms, and Gantt charts present numbers and statistical information. These are usually based on hard data.
6. Templates allow you to create professional looking pages, without formatting the page yourself. Are there any potential drawbacks to templates? What are they?
Templates are restrictive in some ways. They automatically place text and graphics in predetermined locations, limiting the designer’s ability to create a distinctive look. While templates produce professional looking pages, many others are using the same templates to create very similar pages elsewhere. When audience and viewers recognize a design they have seen before (or even many times before) it may undermine the impact that the designer wants the message to achieve. Finally, templates may not correspond to the style or format required in a particular communication situation or for specific documents such as memorandums.
7. Why is timing a key issue in visual design? What is its role in a PowerPoint presentation?
If an image appears before or after it logically should in the progression of presentation or document, the viewer will have difficulty relating it to the message it’s meant to enhance, summarize, or clarify. In PowerPoint presentations, visuals that appear at the wrong time will distract from or confuse viewers about the speaker’s discussion.
8. In what situations is the grid approach advisable? When is it not advisable to use the grid approach?
The grid approach allows the designer to line up graphics within the frame of a slide or page, and settle it neatly inside surrounding text. Designers use the grid approach to organize the look of an entire page, making it easier to anticipate effects of image placement on the balance and unity of the design. If the designer wanted an unsettling design, that lacked balance and unity, he or she may choose not to use the grid approach. This is, however, unusual in professional documents because it often ends up looking amateurish or sloppy.
9. Do visual design principles apply to text documents such as letters or memos that have no pictures, tables or graphs in them? Explain.
Visual design principles apply to anything people look at. Even letters and memos that have no graphics in them make use of white space (between paragraphs, indentations, margins, bulleted lists) to organize information and make it easy for the audience to read and comprehend.
10. Why do asymmetrical layouts appear more mobile and dynamic?
Asymmetrical layouts appear more mobile and dynamic because they cause the eye to move in a specific direction. In a way, they symbolize movement because they “lean.” In general, people expect symmetry in images (although this is somewhat culturally dependent). Asymmetry challenges expectations and catches attention.
Case Development
Feng Shui in the Office
In addition to acquainting themselves with companies in their immediate area, the suggested exercise attached to this case encourages students to think about how it would be to work in a variety of environments. While the concept of Feng Shui in a professional setting may seem a bit odd to some, the idea of working in a comfortable, inviting workspace is very appealing. What students will probably find is that some areas of an office space are indeed comfortable and inviting, but others are chaotic. Sometimes, in an effort to make a space seem “homey,” areas may end up looking cluttered and unprofessional.
A possible auxiliary assignment would be to ask students to make over an office space, creating a new color scheme, and choosing and arranging furniture and equipment within a space to create what they feel is an atmosphere that best expresses the company’s corporate culture, while retaining its functionality. Students can then compare their made over office space to the original office space, reflecting on how employees and management might react to such changes.
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