Visual communication is the conveyance of ideas and information through visual means like pictures, symbols, and gestures rather than words. It has a long history dating back to Charles Darwin's scientific study of nonverbal communication. Today, visual communication is widely used in advertising, promotions, and other applications to get attention and convey messages in a memorable, easy to understand way across language barriers. However, it also has disadvantages like being imprecise for complex ideas and not transmitting through phone lines or at a distance.