Visual Literacy in Business - Essay Example

Visual Literacy in Business Visual Literacy in Business Based on the notion that it is possible to read pictures, visual literacyis basically the ability to interpret and derive meaning from information conveyed through images (Elkins, 2010). This is particularly significant from the business perspective when one considers advertising. Most advertising is aimed at getting people take some form of action. Therefore, through visual literacy, the advertiser will strategically use the elements of the advertisement to create a design that will achieve that goal.

In this sense, visual literacy in business will have several take-aways that include the audience, purpose, context, arrangement and location (Elkins, 2010). These are important to me because the target audience must be considered so as, for example, to capture and hold the attention of men, women or youth. The importance of purpose is that it will define the overall goal of creating the image, which must be reasonably easy to understand but still deliver the intended message and create a desire to take action.

Purpose is complemented by context because context entails background information that will enable viewers to analyze and understand the image. In turn, this makes arrangement important because it will determine how text, graphics and images are placed in the advertisement. Then, location will have its significance in the sense that where the advertisement is placed matters. One concept that I would like to explore further is context. This is because if the advertisement does not give sufficient and relevant background information, it may not serve its purpose because the viewers will not be able to analyze what is being communicated and, therefore, not take any action (Elkins, 2010).

ReferencesElkins, J. (2010). The concept of visual literacy, and its limitations. New York: Routledge.