Visual Communication by Baldwin

From Visual Communication 21-27, 32-33

Noise – anything that gets in the way of, or distorts, a signal and potentially alters the understanding of our messages

Feedback – in communication, the method by which we know our message is being received and the effect it is having.

• Shannon + Weaver published The Mathematical Theory of Communication in 1949. It was about using methods of communication of telephones and radio waves effectively. Their theory explained how to compress and send lots of information down a channel without loosing any important parts that effect the meaning.

• Three levels of problems associated with the above communication:
• Technical – the system of encoding and decoding reliability
• Often happens before the designer is involved. Normally this is the route in which the message will be pushed whether that is radio, tv, posters, what level of press- local or national, etc
• Semantic – the way in which we choose to word the message – this is
• the designer’s level what they choose to create and how they choose to convey it
• Effectiveness – will what we stated affect the viewer as we hope it to?
• The researchers who attain feedback and figure the best way to work with the feedback to be most effective in getting their points across. This step is used throughout the whole process, prior to the launch of the design, focus groups/test groups are created to see what the reaction will be to the designs. Then, post release, researchers are used to gather feedback from the general public about the designs, which then may be edited and put back out in the public’s eye.
• Make sure when designing to have a specific audience in mind in order to effectively communicate to those that are targeted. Otherwise the design will not be as effective as it could be.

• Noise – that which is added to the signal between the sender and receiver that was not intended to be there.
• CAN BE SPLIT INTO 3 LEVELS:
•  Level A is the obvious problem – craft issues via smudges, reception, bad workmanship
•  Level B is based on the background of the receiver. The background is summed up by the social, economic, ethnic background, peers, and family. The main problems at this level are whether or not the receiver understands the message.
• Level C is the effectiveness due to how hard the message is to decipher, based on what else people are doing when interacting with the design, or other issues associated with the physical environment of the receiver.
• The idea of noise in association to design has been an issue since 1880 when the British Arts and Crafts Movement reacted negatively to the fashion design, believing that “form(should) follow(s) function.” From largly the British Arts and Crafts Movement, the modernist aesthetic was born in Vienna in the 1920s, the Bauhaus in Weimar, Dessau and Berlin in the 1930s. This then went to the opposite extreme to show that form can follow function, but it can also become so minimalist that very few are able to understand the message.
• Redundancy can sometimes make the message easier to remember/decipher although at other times can make it more difficult to remember the message.