Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century (Paperback)

by Robert E. Horn (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Uh-oh, McLuhan was right. As our information stream meets a confluence of new media, our language has changed accordingly. Stanford scholar Robert E. Horn lays it all out for us in Visual Language, incorporating visual elements with writing to show and tell simultaneously. Reminiscent of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, the book thoroughly explains how we recognize and interpret this new language; rather than teaching us how to read or write, it lays the groundwork for better use of the still-evolving communication tool.

Simple clip art and occasionally confusing text boxes amply demonstrate that this language is unfinished and even uncomfortable for some readers--but the power of combining graphics and words still shines through. Complex issues and wide ranges of opinion can be grasped quickly and particular problems can be highlighted for greater scrutiny. (It's no accident that Horn is best known as a pioneer of hypertext.)

Sections cover the basic units and form, semantics, and pragmatics, exploring all elements of advertising, comics, static multimedia, and other uses of visual language. Anyone who is involved in advertising or uses PowerPoint professionally--or just wants insight into the new directions our language is taking--should read Visual Language carefully for clues to the future of communication. --Rob Lightner

Review
Foundational book...launches a new field of study! -- Robert Philip Weber, Author, Dynamics of Culture

In this landmark book, Bob Horn has brought together the depth of his years of experience in information design with a wealth of research on the history and practice of visual langauges. The result is a new synthesis: a way of thinking about visual language that integrates and extends the different elements on which he draws. It may come to be, as he predicts, the starting point for a new field of study that develops the "global language for the 21st century." -- Terry Winograd, Stanford University, Program on People, Computers, and Design

Visual Language explains an emerging international language that co-mingles words and images to convey holistic and complex ideas. -- Terry Windograd, Professor, Stanford University

You won't understand the effect of computers and technology on how 21st people will communicate without this book. -- Walter Truett Anderson, Author, Reality Isn't What It Used To Be

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Macrovu Inc.; 1 edition (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 189263709X
• ISBN-13: 978-1892637093
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #252,726 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love/Hate reviews, October 9, 2000

By	Robert Lucas (San Rafael, CA United States) - See all my reviews

People seem to either love Bob Horn's book "Visual Language" or they hate it. Look at the reviews here on Amazon! The key questions is: Why such a polarizing? To me it means that Horn has written a paradigm-busting, pathfinding, boundary-crossing, far-out book -- one that removes our blinders from a phenomenon that is happening all around us, namely a new international, auxiliary language that is emerging. No wonder it arouses controversy.

Some of the top people in interface design, technical writing, information design and web design have written 5-star reviews for Visual Language on Amazon. They praise its exploration of a whole new territory, and like its systematic treatment of the new syntax, semantics and pragmatics of this language. And they note that Horn is not only describing a trend, but pushing the envelope a bit further.

The detractors seem to be graphic artists who are threatened by Horn's deliberately provocative use of clip art. Or they are people who don't like it that Horn has moved beyond his accomplishment in single-handedly inventing the whole field Information Mapping and structured writing. They want to keep Horn in his box. But some of the best selling books of the last decade have been written in visual language. David Macaulay's "The Way Things Work" is perhaps the most famous example.

Many designers relish the new "texture" of Horn's book -- a texture that results from the dramatic change in the ratio of images to text. Horn is saying bluntly and explicitly, "your communication in visual language has got to reflect what words do best and what images do best -- when they are working together". Horn not only expounds on that message but shows us how it will look on every page. And he explains the systematics of it.

This bothers a lot of people. And it excites even more of us.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A seminal work for the right audience, August 8, 2001

By	Mike Tarrani "www.tarrani.com" (Deltona, FL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This is not a book on layout and design, so if you are in that segment you will probably not like this book. The author's intent is to develop a visual approach for conveying information. The approach itself is a combination of pictures and words structured in a format similar to a comic strip or storyboard. This approach has merit, although it breaks many layout and design rules for aesthetics. This probably accounts for the wide chasm that divides the previous reviewers.

Regardless of whether you buy into the entire approach the main value of this book lies in the education you will receive in the effective use of shapes and images to convey meaning. Prior to reading this book I used intuition, previous experience and a lot of examples when designing documents that relied heavily on graphics.

I came away from this book with the following: (1) a clear idea of how to integrate words, images and shapes to effectively communicate ideas and concepts. (2) Cogitative aspects of certain shapes and forms, singularly or in combination, as metaphors for time, speed and other qualities that you want to impart. (3) How to effectively use space in a diagram to convey information - the chapter on the vocabulary of space, including distance, placement in frames and other spatial techniques was worth the price of the book to me. (4) The ways to develop different diagrams using the same basic information served as an idea catalog for me and has greatly influenced my approach to information visualization.

An additional benefit I personally gained from this book is that it provided me with a solid foundation that makes Edward Tufte's beautifully produced and seminal books more understandable. Before reading this book I struggled with Tufte's Envisioning Information, but did not comprehend many of the subtleties. Armed with the knowledge gained from Visual Language I revisited Tufte's book and saw its beauty and genius. This has added the dimension of aesthetics to the way I produce graphics.

So, while this book breaks a plethora of rules in page layout and design, and the examples are not visually appealing, it does give an approach for effectively conveying information. If you want to understand how to effectively integrate words, images and shapes to convey highly technical concepts or information you will find some excellent ideas in this book, as well as gain an understanding of how they all fit together on a more fundamental level. I give it five stars for the profound influence it has had on my thinking and recommend it to those of us who are not graphic artists.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A uniquely useful and challenging learning adventure, August 21, 1999

By	Robert Jacobson (Santa Monica, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Visual language, combining text and images, has been around for a long time -- but only in the last two decades, with the rise of desktop publishing and design, has it become commonly accessible. Horn, a pioneer in the field (and inventor of Information Mapping), wants us to acknowledge the power inherent in this melange.

To communicate his case, Horn uses visual language. This makes the book twice as interesting: you, the reader, learn about visual language as you experience it. This book is full of discoveries and demonstrations. Begin it on a lazy weekend and you may not want to stop until you're done.

It's challenging that Horn uses clipart throughout, to make the point that one need not be an artist to write visual language. That may be so; but clipart, despite the ingenuity of its authors, has limitations, especially conceptual banality. Horn is a master; others of us might have more difficulty treating complex issues with visual language based on clipart.

No matter. One can easily envision a more subtle and sublime form of visual communication using more eloquent graphics. VISUAL LANGUAGE remains fun and informative from beginning to end. This book is both a text and a how-to. Read and apply it well!