"What is visual communication?" --- a humble perspective

Some random brainstorming----

-- creating shared meaning with other people through the visual sense, the eyes
-- depending on image-driven aesthetics in the arrangement of content to transmit a message to someone else
--using visual stimuli as the main means of securing attention, transmitting message, and creating shared meaning

..................................

Someone of recent acquaintance described a book as requiring not only historical and contemporary perspective but also aesthetic. The more I ponder this point, the more I realize that visual communication essentially illuminates our experience on this earth. How often have you been drawn to one store and not another because of the colors and arrangement of the mannequins? How many times have you walked into your messy room and sighed at the chaos--or relished the relief of reaching a familiar environment? How much more seriously do you take flyers printed with Times New Roman rather than Curlz MT?

Every day I create shared meaning with the people around me; so many times, our only interaction is visual--registering their gait out of the corner of my eye, seeing a nod in my direction, waving from across the street, or posting pictures on Facebook. Therefore, aesthetic visual elements do matter--sometimes just as much as the non-visual elements.

Therefore, although I think I have a pretty good grasp of the basic idea behind "what visual communication is", I know I will learn so much more in the following weeks about the why's and how's.