Visual+Literacy

 View the image below and see my comments regarding the use of visuals to portray meaning: From a perceptions stand point it is difficult for me to derive what is going on. The picture as a whole, gestalt, is confused. Chickens floating cooked and uncooked, which one do we eat? The little chick? The title refers to protein but the captions make no mention of such. The hierarchy is completely out of alignment; the amounts listed in the small fields are in no logical order. The images are floating up and down and have no consistent placement. This goes along with the actions, the alignment and proximity of the images. As far as the proximity goes, the information and the images are slammed into such a small area that there is too much going on. If the information was allowed more space then the images could better align with the information that they represent. I do like the repetition of America within the information. This repetition really drives home the point that this information pertains to us and that makes it seem a special case. The use of color Is good for individualizing the different information pieces, but as mentioned earlier since it is so congested the color is lost. The shape doesn’t work in my view. Since this is a list of numbers and we usually view lists in columns, then I feel that this information would be better suited in a vertical shape. To enhance this visual, I would organize it by total amount, vertically, and space it out more so that the images could fit in next to the information they represent. The title of the piece needs to refer directly to the information included and in this image it is indirect. I would probably remove the little chick image and replace it with a food. I just don’t like the idea of eating a little chick whole…