Visual Text and communication Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Visual Text and communication - Assignment Example It is, therefore, crucial to be equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary for communication using signs. Sign as a mean of communication is made up of two components. Signs are made up of signifier as well as the signified (Hoenisch, 2005). The signifier is in other terms a term that is used to represent the real term. For example, a drawing of a tree is a sign that represent a form of existing tree. When a business dealer wants to communicate with his or her customers about when the shop is open or closed he or she do not need to stand there and talk. He or she may draw a tag that says open or closed. The tag becomes of a sign. It is referred as a signifier. It represents the status of the operation in the shop. For the signifier to be meaningful and give information that will eventually lead to effective communication, there must be an object or a situation that is signified. The signified is the object or a situation that we are directed to by the signifier (Messaris, 1994, p. 243). For example, the picture of a tree signifies a form of a real tree. The signifier is the image while the signified is the live tree. Since the communication is in the form of image, the signified will be the mental picture that the reader creates in his mind after observing the image (Cherry, 1966, p. 106). Therefore, the two components of a sign will lead to the term and a full meaning of signification. It means, therefore, that, both of them must make meaning have a significant meaning. There are however some tools that are used in the signs and image language that are associated with images for proper understanding of the situation. Connotation is mostly used together with the term denotation to represent the image situation (Culler, 1985, p. 231). Connotation may be used to represent the emotional attachment that is carried by the image that is giving out the information. With reference