CP650-19; 657.278.4604
California State University, Fullerton
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Visual Communications: Image is Everything?
This course attempts to explore several questions. Since the widespread use of Gutenberg's
printing press, there has always been the cultural assumption that information is best
communicated through written formats. But since the invention of the computer and desktop
publishing, the role of visual messages in the communication process is expanding.
Much of the information in the course and textbook will be new to you. Such a predicament is
not your fault because you have been raised to mainly consider words as the most important form
of human communication. This course is an attempt, as many others have tried, to even up the
score between words and images. It is important to understand, however, that an emphasis on
visual messages for this course does NOT mean that words are considered less important than
images. The most powerful, meaningful and culturally important messages are those that
combine words and pictures in equally respectful ways.
Visual Communications is an exploration into the idea that memorable visual messages with text
have the greatest power to inform, educate and persuade an individual. This course is an attempt
to discover why some images are remembered while most are not.
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Textbook:
Additional information can be found at: http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/wadsworth/ |
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Grading:
Test 1: 25 percent
Attendance will be taken twice each day. Each absence will count five points off your attendance grade unless you let me know before class that you will be absent. You will only be allowed three pre-approved excuses. There are no excuses given for the last class.
You can receive five points added to your attendance grade for each typed two-page response to the exercises at the end of each chapter. You may turn in up to 15 of these papers at any time in the semester up until the last class. In addition, you can write a 10-page paper for up to 25 points.
Because the acoustics are quite good in this auditorium I will not tolerate unnecessary chatter. As specified by University policy, I have the right to ask you to leave the class, if talking is a problem. You will also be asked to leave the class if your beeper or cell phone rings or if you fall asleep.
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Course Outline:
To Sense. To Select. To Perceive.
Light
Eye, Retina, and the Brain
Visual Cues: Color, Form, Depth, and Movement
Visual Theories
Visual Persuasion
Pictorial Stereotyping
Six perspectives for Image Analysis
Typography
Graphic Design
Informational Graphics
Cartoons
Photography
Motion Pictures
Television and Video
Computers
World Wide Web
The More You Know; The More You See
Visual Communication Images with Messages, Third Edition
By Paul Martin Lester
Test 2: 30 percent
Final Exam: 35 percent
Attendance: 10 percent
Readings: Preface and Chapter 1
Reading: Chapter 2
Reading: Chapter 3
Reading: Chapter 4
Reading: Chapter 5
Reading: Chapter 6
Reading: Chapter 7
Reading: Introduction to Section Four
Reading: Chapter 8
Reading: Chapter 9
Reading: Chapter 10
Reading: Chapter 11
Reading: Chapter 12
Reading: Chapter 13
Reading: Chapter 14
Reading: Chapter 15
Reading: Chapter 16
Reading: Chapter 17