Connie Malamed

This book promotes user-centric graphics by exploring simple design principles that are based on the way viewers understand and learn from visual information. The purpose is to encourage graphic designers to communicate more effectively and accurately with images. Using a compilation of imaginative visuals from professional and student artists, the author will elaborate on these principles: organize the visual structure; reduce realism; make the abstract concrete; direct the eye; and support graphics with text.

Within every picture is a hidden language that conveys a message, whether it is intended or not. This language is based on the ways people perceive and process visual information. By understanding visual language as the interface between a graphic and a viewer, designers and illustrators can learn to inform with accuracy and power. In a time of unprecedented competition for audience attention and with an increasing demand for complex graphics, Visual Language for Designers explains how to achieve quick and effective communications. It presents ways to design for the strengths of our innate mental capacities and to compensate for our cognitive limitations. Includes:-How to organize graphics for quick perception-How to direct the eyes to essential information-How to use visual shorthand for efficient communication-How to make abstract ideas concrete-How to best express visual complexity-How to charge a graphic with energy and emotion