Visual Literacy

 

Our purpose

• N.Z.C. ‘Understanding, using and creating oral, written, and visual texts of increasing complexity is at the heart of English teaching and learning’.

• We are aiming to create a culture of Visual Literacy.

• Responding to a world that is rich in visual complexity and almost constant communication.

• Empowering our children as consumers, readers - and, ultimately, creators of visual texts.

• We’ll start to look at ways that we can do this today - but more to come!

Share a visual text you love (buddies; rotate?)

• What excites, moves, interests you?

Hook: how many different kinds of visual texts have you encountered so far today?

Brief share - paint a picture of what’s coming our way on a daily basis (film, TV, phones, coffee cups, food packaging, billboards, posters, signage, branding, print media etc.).

How this world looks to our children

• Growing up in a world of sophisticated visual texts.

• We know that some of our children are particularly invested in games, YouTube etc.

• They are adept at reading these texts. Can they say how they do what they do? (Inside the black box.)

Putting power in our children’s hands. Can we help them to become more conscious and knowledgeable consumers (and creators).

Banksy: visual texts in the built environment

• A picture is worth a thousand words - designed for maximum impact!

• Connects to advertising, logos, signage - and the shorthand that’s possible in pictures.

• Share an example and short discussion. Imagine you come upon this on a wall. What do you notice first? What else do you see? What’s your reaction? Is there a message? Are there other layers of meaning carried by the images?

Making design choices: some principles (rules to use - or choose to break)

• Having a few design principles in mind helps us get started with a visual text (reading or creating).

• Here are some ideas from the world of print to consider:

• Visual hierarchy (what key things do you want people to notice and what do you want people to look at first?).

• Directing eye movement (through lines, making use of how our eye track across the page, the Z and F).

• Space and balance (negative space; how things are arranged on the page).

• Lines and shapes (curves, straight lines, dynamic movement and direction, organic and inorganic).

• Layers (hierarchy, dynamism, movement)

• Typography (size, style, hierarchy).

• Symbols (think Banksy, shorthand, loaded with meaning - but concise)

• Colour (snags the key, carries a range of powerful messages).

Focus on colour

Look at the colour swatch on your desk. What associations does it have for you?

• Actually, we all have expertise in reading colour as part of visual texts: based on tens of thousands of years of human interaction with the natural environment - cultural knowledge and influences (which will differ).

• Unpick some of the colours.

A great resource that sums some of this up 99designs.

Time for some art

• Using what we’ve learnt about design, and especially colour, create a poster manifesto for yourself: My Ways of Working (choose around 3 words to work with).

• Allow time to share.

Wrapping up and planting a seed

• We hope there are some ideas you can already begin to share with your children.

• How else can foster a culture that takes visual texts