Anatomy of a visual message

The Primer of Visual Literacy was a really helpful and smart read. It helped me to understand the differences between the three ways that we express and receive visual images.
The article touched base on the three levels that we express visual messages:

Representationally, Abstractally, and symbolically.

Symbolically:

For abstraction for symbolism requires complete symplicity. A symbol in order for it to be effective it must recongnizable when seen, and it must be able to be reproduced. it cannot have a large deal of detail in it either. less is more in this case. and he also goes on to talk about the education of the public when regarding symbols. People have to know the backgrounds when it comes to spotting out symbols. If a person does not understand what the emblem is. They will not understand the meaning of why it is what it is. Symbols also must refer to a certain group, idea, or business...etc.


Abstractally:

Abstraction, does not have any relationship with symbol making. With abstaction we only need to see the basic visual elements. Which will lead the viewer to see the more significance of the understanding and structuring of the visual messages. I really like when Dondis says " Abstraction, visually is simplification toward a more intense and distilled meaning. " For me that really stuck out when abstraction was discussed, because when some people think of abstraction, like myself they think that alot of it has to be very dense, and it doesnot have a meaning to it. Which is not the case in all abstractions.

Reprosentationally:

Representational images are mostly images like photographs, which are most successful in recreating a picture, realistic drawings and paintings can also be representational, but can often lean towards becoming abstract. The actual meaning behind a representational image is just the image itself, and nothing more. The meaning is left for the viewer to decide, and for detailed paintings, drawings, and photographs their will be many different meanings from each viewer.