Drawn Together Through Visual Practice

by Brandy Agerbeck

  Peter Stoyko • Imagery That Travels Well

  Are word labels a failure of visual communication? No. Each symbol has to be learned somehow. Object resemblance, contextual clues, and familiar tropes only help so much. Labels aren’t ideal for communicating across languages. Yet adding a slightly familiar image to a vaguely familiar word might be just enough to get the point across. Even for native speakers of the language, the label has reference value; that is, after the label is read once or twice, the viewer becomes familiar enough with the associated illustration that a glance is enough to jog the memory. The viewer can then parse the images on a page, or the icons on a computer interface, or the pictograms on a control dashboard with great efficiency.

  Problems occur when the labels are confusing buzzwords or are mismatched with images. Vague and misleading jargon can be used to evade scrutiny, especially in the worlds of business and politics. Visuals can add clarity. Yet some word usages, such as euphemisms, are deliberately designed to suppress imagery in the mind’s eye. Pairing a vague word with mildly suggestive imagery doesn’t communicate much. Sometimes bad image-label pairings are simply a matter of laziness. Advertisers and website designers are often guilty of using a handful of overused stock icons to represent all sorts of tenuously related concepts.

  A rule of thumb: if the word-image pairing isn’t obvious to someone like yourself, it will probably stump those who are very different. I tell my clients to give up the “zombie” clichés. These are overused words and visuals that have so many potential meanings that they could mean anything. Audiences will ignore an image of two hands shaking or mechanical gears, for instance, instead of pondering the message associated with it. Visualization isn’t just scavenging through collections of generic icons and “clip art.” Properly brainstorm and research all of the imagery connected to a concept—all of the symbols, associations, and analogies. Select the ones that balance freshness with travel-worthiness.

  Shared imagery

  These episodes reveal that people perceive images quite differently across cultures. Don’t let that intimidate you. Some visuals travel well despite all the cultural variation. There are universals, at least for most intents and purposes. These come in three forms.

  First, there are meanings that come from common experience. For example, people throughout the world attribute the same meaning to basic facial expressions: smiles, frowns, looks of surprise, looks of dread, and so forth. It’s only when expressions become subtle that culture-specific shades of meaning come into play. Likewise with basic figure poses, such as running or jumping. Once you enter the realm of gestures, however, assuming common meaning can be very dangerous indeed.7

  The second source of common visual language is the global economy.

  Like it or not, cultures are converging. Think of all the sources of shared visuals: the advertising industry and consumer packaging; the iconography of web page, computer, and phone interfaces; the charts and graphs of the workplace; video games; blockbuster films; music videos; maps and wayfinding graphics; the art of international youth subcultures, such as street graffiti, sticker-bombs, and T-shirt motifs; the list goes on. Note, however, that this influence depends somewhat on how urban, affluent, and plugged-in your specific audience is. There are generational differences too.

  Peter Stoyko • Imagery That Travels Well

  Third, a few images are “in good currency” throughout much of the world. That could be because of ancient cultural influences or modern international standards. For example, a skull and crossbones represents “danger,” “poison,”and “deadly harm” pretty much everywhere. That doesn’t preclude local alternatives, such as an image of a scorpion on warning labels in South Asia. These simply work like synonyms, ones which don’t travel as well.

  Visual rhetoric

  Just as wording can be used for rhetorical effect, so can visuals. Therein lies much danger. I’ve had experiences using ethnocentric visual analogies in other cultures where the audience didn’t get too bothered. Some audiences are intrigued by an exotic foreign analogy. In contrast, sometimes I have chosen a shared image only to have audiences get agitated or uncomfortable. What’s going on? Subtle cues and stylistic choices can offer subtle shades of meaning, insinuations, and connotations. Some of these nuances push cultural hot-buttons. Others have a more subtle effect: they are felt but not necessarily noticed. Those impressions have to be managed. Let’s explore some specific cases.

  Visual hyperbole is extravagant exaggeration that isn’t meant to be taken literally. Most visual metaphors are somewhat hyperbolic. Hyperbole is found in all cultures, but formulations differ, as do peoples’ attitudes towards them. In some places and social situations, hyperbole is considered a lazy and deceptive form of overstatement. In others, it’s an acceptable form of assertion and emphasis that isn’t taken at face value.8 Some illustrators use visual hyperbole to grab attention, add humor, and make sure the point gets across. Depending on the cultural sensibilities of the audience, visual hyperbole can be inspiring or it can insult people’s intelligence.

  Visualized figures of speech (idioms) cause the most miscommunication. Drawing idioms is a piece of cake and it’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys. I think you catch my drift: our language is full of these turns of phrase, most of which invoke imagery in a way that’s over the top. That’s what makes idioms so tempting to draw: most already offer a visual analogy with rhetorical punch. Unfortunately, such analogies tend to be obscure. As they say in Japan, don’t let your daughter-in-law eat your autumn eggplant. In other words, as the French say, don’t get rolled in flour. See what I mean?

  Most drawings of people have some element of caricature: certain facial features get exaggerated, even if they are not distorted in grotesque or cartoonish ways. How deftly that is done can mean the difference between authenticity and insult. The way we draw people is full of bias that is hard to see until the tables are turned. That struck me when I went to a faux-European village in the suburbs of Chengdu, China. I came across a sculpture that was supposed to depict a Dutchman, yet I could see how the artist struggled to get rid of certain habits of the conventional style used to sculpt Chinese facial features.

  That distortion is not just a problem of style but of noticing. I study the work of artists from other places. Then I try to reproduce their work, not to copy, but to see what they see. I incorporate some of those lessons into my style when drawing people with ancestral backgrounds and ethnicities that are noticeably different than my own.

  History is full of examples of racist, demeaning caricatures. Know this history in order to understand the caricature prohibitions of various places. Alas, those who take it upon themselves to police these taboos can sometimes be amongst the least knowledgeable about them. Caricatures also don’t travel well. A drawing inspired by African folk-art may delight in Nairobi or Lagos but cause anger in Port-au-Prince or Los Angeles. The artistic inspiration may not be evident. If it is, the caricature may be seen as cultural “appropriation” or “trivialization,” prohibitions enforced by those who object to cultural blending and any signs of pastiche. What is an “authentic” depiction? What is socially permissible? In some places, the answer depends on the presumed group status of the visualizer, not the qualities of the visual.

  The portraiture style …

  … Applied to a Dutchman

  Peter Stoyko • Imagery That Travels Well

  Speaking of visual politics, I’m writing this chapter in Cairo, Egypt. It’s hard to imagine a place where visual expression is more contested. Democracy protestors express irreverence with street art, or what some activists call “graphic agitation.” The state and various political factions compete to align themselves with various ancient symbols that connote national identity. Modes of dress signal various identity claims, such as class, politics, and religious allegiance. Even the absence
s are revealing. An election is going on but there’s no campaign imagery in sight. The dominant religion, Islam, has strict prohibitions against drawing certain things as a way of preventing idol worship and irreverence. Visualizers need to take account of these cultural “framing contests” and “no-go zones.”

  While on the topic of identity claims, when drawing people, the subtleties of dress and style matter. Take the example of Muslim dress norms. The style of clothing differs in distinctive ways around the world. Grooming norms and the style of headwear can signal whether someone is from Istanbul or Tehran or Abu Dhabi or Jakarta. It’s best not to get those details wrong. Having your social identity misrepresented can cause insult. Having it mistaken for the social identity of another group can cause more serious grievance.

  It also helps to understand the cultural influences of your own style. I draw in a variety of styles depending on client wants and project constraints. Many of the vector illustrations drawn for this chapter are very crisp, clean, and geometric. That is my default for icon and pictogram work. My style owes a great deal to German modernist iconographers from the early 20th Century, particularly Wilhelm Deffke, Otto Neurath, and Gerd Arntz.9 I’m also inspired by modern interpreters of that artistic movement, especially Johannes Plass and Heinrich Paravicini, who added street-art techniques.10 Mixing and matching styles from other cultures can seem incongruent. But then again, it can also be the source of creativity. After all, where would we be without the cross-cultural stylistic blending of Pablo Picasso?

  Details have different connotations across cultures. Take color for example. Red signifies danger, alarm, or passion in Western societies. It represents good fortune and health in China. Red can mean “win” in the casino-gaming industry but mean “loss” in the financial sector of the economy. In the Caribbean, I sometimes work on politically sensitive projects where collaborators ask me not to use colors associated with any political party—any political party in twelve countries, that is. That doesn’t leave much choice. Images may take on unintended connotations based on the associations attributed to small details.

  I make a point of investigating some of those associations. It can be as simple as checking the colors associated with national and religious symbols, political parties, and local sports teams. It’s good to keep a record of popular color preferences wherever you go. In some countries, a lack of vibrant colors can make your work seem drab. In other places, vibrant colors are considered brash. Many factors are involved: the intensity of natural light in the place; the color of the natural surroundings; cultural traditions; the restrictiveness of the political regime. Color palettes can be very distinctive culturally. Don’t just choose colors based on personal aesthetic preferences. Think about the audience’s cultural predisposition too.

  Conclusion

  This crash-course in cross-cultural communication suggests that visualizers should be more inquisitive about the imagery being used, right down to the fine details. That’s partly what “design” means: crafting small details with purpose. It is more than that, however. Become more aware of your own cultural influences so as to not give off unintended signals. It also helps to take an interest in other cultures and the way cultural products teach imagery. That’s what it means to become a worldly flâneur, or someone who spends time in far-flung places to observe the details of life and interpret larger meanings.

  Peter Stoyko • Imagery That Travels Well

  PETER STOYKO is a social science researcher and information designer working for Elanica, an international consultancy devoted to service design, management, and public governance. Details are available at stoyko.net and elanica.com. Peter can be reached at peter.stoyko@elanica.com. Copyright, 2016. Peter would like to thank Jennifer Shepherd, Oliver Caviglioli, and Michael Babwahsingh for comments on an earlier draft.

  References

  This distinction comes from Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, New York, William Morrow, 1994.

  H. Becker, What About Mozart? What About Murder? Reasoning from Cases, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2014, p. 16

  This distinction can be traced back to Charles Sanders Peirce’s theory of signs from the 1860s.

  This example comes from H. Dreyfuss, Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1972.

  X. Bing, Book from the Ground: From Point to Point, Cambridge, The MIT Press, 2014.

  R. E. Nisbett, The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently … and Why, New York, The Free Press, 2003.

  A good reference for this is R. Lefevre, Rude Hand Gestures of the World, San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 2011.

  I owe this insight to O. Hafez, “Hyperbolic Expressions in Egyptian Arabic and British English,” in N. Kassabgy, Z. Ibrahim, and S. Aydelott (eds.), Contrastive Rhetoric: Issues, Insights and Pedagogy, Cairo, The American University of Cairo Press, 2004, pp. 172-173.

  See Bröhan Design Foundation, Wilhelm Deffke: Pioneer of the Modern Logo, Zurich, Verlag Scheidegger & Spiess; Otto Neurath, From Hieroglyphics to Isotype: A Visual Autobiography, London, Hyphen Press, 2010 [1946]; E. Annink and M. Bruinsma,

  Gerd Arntz: Graphic Designer, Rotterdam, 010 Publishers, 2010.

  My favorite showcase of their work is R. Klanten (ed.), Lingua Grafica, Berlin, Die Gestalten Verlag, 2001. That inspired two sequels, Lingua Universalis (2004) and Lingua Digitalis (2012).

  The Thermal Lift

  of Visualization

  How to empower people in visual thinking, learning

  and co-creation

  Martin Haussmann

  Interviewed by Brandy Agerbeck

  Brandy: Your team at bikablo® akademie in Cologne, Germany has taught thousands to adopt visual language to express themselves in their work at meetings. Where did it begin? And tell us about the name.

  Martin: About eight years ago, in our “mothership,” the organizational consultancy Kommunikationslotsen, I worked in a team of graphic recorders with our facilitators Holger Scholz and Roswitha, mostly within large group conferences. We started a collaboration with Guido Neuland from the learning tool manufacturer Neuland. Guido likes to draw and has been very much into the visual thinking from the beginning. He immediately said, “Let’s create a product. Let’s do a visual dictionary which covers all the pictures you do in your graphic recording.”

  I said, “Twenty or thirty pages maybe?” In the end, the first bikablo® turned out to be more than 100 pages.

  Guido had already produced a deck of cards for moderation and facilitation called “MoKaBlo.” Mo for moderation, ka for karte, the German word for cards, and blo for block. Since our deck was images, the first part of the new name came from Bild, the German word for pictures. bikablo®. We liked the name, it sounded fancy and a bit mystic. That was the beginning.

  At that time we didn’t think of having our own visual facilitation academy, it was just an exciting name for a book that turned out to be a quick best-seller. A second bikablo® visual dictionary came out with more sophisticated subjects, later bikablo® emotions with visualized people in situations, and now it is a whole range of products.

  Two years ago, we decided to create our own visual facilitation training company as a spin off from Kommunikationslotsen. Everyone knew it had to be called bikablo® akademie. All our clients knew and loved the brand because it always showed a certain kind of attitude towards visualizing and drawing.

  B: I like that it’s a friendly, accessible sound. Also, it’s three root words put together—exactly what you are teaching when you are talking about taking simple icons and putting them together to represent more complex ideas. I studied German in high school and when I first saw a bikablo®, I was instantly attracted to the German-ness of all the root words coming together.

  M: Recently
I talked to Marcel, our trainer in Australia and New Zealand. He suggested to keep the German spelling, bikablo® akademie, because people down under like the German engineering attitude.

  I can tell you more about the German craftsmanship behind bikablo® in a minute.

  Martin Haussmann Interviewed by Brandy Agerbeck • The Thermal Lift of Visualization

  B: In 2011, you and Holger invited me to do a workshop with your students. The day before, I sat in on the last part of your two-day beginner training. Your participants were sharing their own visualized posters applied what they had learned to a scenario in their work life. Even though I was listening through rusty high school German, watching body language, and watching what people were doing in these drawings—I thought their work was amazingly sophisticated. I think it really reflected how you’re talking about first connecting with the joy of drawing, and getting people that sense of mastery even if it’s really simple icons. Can you tell me more about how your students develop so quickly?

  M: This is where “German engineering and craftsmanship” fits in. At the bikablo® akademie we have a very strong design-driven approach and that is crucial for our way of empowering people without previous graphic knowledge. We call it the bikablo® technique and we have it copyright[ed] because we want people to learn it “from the source.”

  Today our 20-person bikablo® trainer-team offers basic, advanced, open, and in-house classes for over 2,500 people a year based on this methodology.