Images of the same object can have many different meanings. They can convey the meaning inherent with the object itself, which is usually, but not always, tied to the function or purpose of the object. By juxtaposing or configuring the image of the object next to other meaningful objects, you can also change the meaning. In short, images are communicators, and the way we represent them dictate their meaning. That is the essence of illustration and the point-of-view from which this class is taught.
Conceptual Thumbnail Sketches of Typewriter Images as Communicators
An image of a Typewriter as an object.
By adding Paper to the Typewriter, the image begins to convey the functionality of a Typewriter.
We put the Typewriter into a context by adding a background. In this case, a desk in a yellow room.
We add hands to the image and it conveys even more the functionality of a Typewriter and also
personalizes it.
We can modify the meaning of what is being typed on the Typewriter by lighting the paper on fire. The flames “signify” the paper.
Whatever we type in the letter now will be viewed and expressed in the context of the flames and “hot writing.” Thus the image provocatively introduces “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” by D.H. Lawrence, a sexually charged novel written at the turn of the 20th Century which helped overturn the repressed sexual mores of the Victorian Age.
Or we could use the concept and the image to illustrate a magazine article on good books to read over summer vacation entitled, “Hot Summer Reads.”
Cropping the image put emphasis and viewer attention onto the title and the visual communication concept.
