visual language
Seeing is understanding
Visual language is a system of communication through images, symbols, shapes, colors, and spatial relationships rather than words.
Designers, artists, and filmmakers develop fluency in visual language to convey meaning: The director's visual language relies heavily on shadow and negative space.
The term also describes any consistent visual style or vocabulary: The company's visual language includes rounded corners and muted pastels.
Displays conveying information
- symbolsMarks conveying meaning
- gesturesExpressive body movements
- facial expressionsVisible emotional displays
- pictogramsImages conveying meaning
emoji · infographics · diagrams · charts · graphs · iconography · semiotics · ASL
Vivid descriptive language
- symbolismRepresenting concepts through images
- compositionArranged elements forming whole
- paletteSurface for mixing pigments
- illustrationPicture explaining something
montage · juxtaposition · depiction · representation · iconography · motif · framing · contrast
signs
Displays conveying information
- symbolsMarks conveying meaning
- gesturesExpressive body movements
- facial expressionsVisible emotional displays
pictograms · emoji · infographics · diagrams · charts · graphs · iconography · semiotics · ASL · ideograms
imagery
Vivid descriptive language
- symbolismRepresenting concepts through images
- compositionArranged elements forming whole
- paletteSurface for mixing pigments
illustration · montage · juxtaposition · depiction · representation · iconography · motif · framing · contrast · tableau
- brandingbrand identity, brand, brand equity, taglines, logos
- visual cultureiconography, semiotics, symbols, signs, image analysis
- Artistic Identitystyle, aesthetic, creative vision, signature
- design processbrainstorming, prototyping, concept, wireframe, sketches
- word-picturesimagery, word painting, mental picture, depiction, illustration
- art theoryaesthetics, art criticism, art history, formalism, iconography
visual languagespoken language
Audible verbal communication system
spoken word · speech · oral tradition · verbal expression · vocalization
language, visual, languages, visualization, visually, visualized, visualizing, visualizes, nonvisual