graphical production online and visual literacy
a presentation by david gillis

visual codification online: structure

visual codification online: symbols

visual codification online: style

The growing influence
of graphic design
• Stats Canada: economic contribution of culture
outpacing economy; specialized design services
up 14.4% 1999-2001; 6.9% 2001-2002
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: graphic design field
expected to grow faster than national avg.
• California occupational guide: growth rates of
34% for commercial artists, 96% for desktop
publishing specialists, and 45% growth for
multimedia artists and animators between 1998
and 2008

visual thinking as a service: XPLANE

the creative class and graphic design
• (c.f. Florida, 2002)
• Economic: accounts for 1/3 US GDP
• Social: “derives identity from members’ roles
as purveyors of creativity”
• Think no-collar workplace; bo-bos
(simultaneously bohemian and bourgeois)

the creative class,
graphic design and you
• “The creative class is the norm-setting class of
our time.”
• “The final element of the social structure of
creativity...is a supportive social milieu that is
open to all forms of creativity...This milieu
provides the underlying eco-system or habitat in
which the multidimensional forms of creativity
take root and flourish...It also facilitates cross-
fertilization between and among these forms.”

visual productivity on the web
• Hundreds of online exhibits displayed weekly on
design portals like surfstation.lu, k10k.net,
newstoday.com
• k10k receives 100-150 thousand hits per day
• Mixture of professional/personal work on
display
• Example...

visual productivity on the web
• Question: what sort of theory can account for
this phenomenon?

visual literacy
• Work manifests both idiosyncrasy and
coherence; appears to be driven by individual
interest as well as a collective consciousness.
• Each individual piece is (at least, tacitly) part of
a larger project
• Creative forms represent a mode of discourse
where the medium is the message

visual literacy as a condition
• meaning-making substrate
• representational resources
• communicative technology
• stabilized form & function
visual semiotic
visual language
visual literacy
• receptive/interpretive framework
• encultured knowledge and its
social implications

visual literacy is a condition...
• whereby traditional communicative technologies
and forms are reconfigured and reshaped;
• it is a communal, rather than an institutional
phenomenon;
• and it entails the re-codification of imagery and
renders visual forms conspicuous once again to
our culture

concerning orality and literacy
• Aboriginal art in oral cultures
characterized by structural,
stylistic, and symbolic
conventions.
• Takes advantage of
representational affordances
in visual modes of expression.
• Effective mode for conveying
narrative, ceremonial, cultural
meanings.

concerning orality and literacy
• McLuhan: “The phonetic alphabet fell like a
bombshell, installing sight at the head of the
hierarchy of senses. Literacy propelled man
from the tribe, gave him an eye for an ear...”
• Innis: “The written language was made into an
instrument responsive to the demands of the oral
tradition. Introduction of the alphabet meant a
concern with sound rather than sight or with the
ear rather than the eye”

questions?