Visual+Literacy

**1.) ARTIFACT:** Visual Literacy - I thought the visual literacy information was quite interesting. It really is amazing how much clearer a message can be conveyed just by displaying it differently. I always have organized information in a well-structured way, but visual literacy took it to the next level. It became apparent after working with visual literacy, why marketing is a billion dollar industry! - I will use visual literacy techniques in my classroom to improve illustrations, power points, handouts, etc. It is a simple way to eliminate any unnecessary distractions!
 * 2.) What do you think of it? **
 * 3.) How will you use it in the classroom? **

__Visual Literacy Assignment __

1.) My interpretation of this visual illustrates American relationships to food. It demonstrates not only our over-reliance on meat for protein, but we fall victim to the illusion that we need a substantial more amount of protein than we really do. This could be an ad to promote more vegetarian practices, or simply an ad to expose the myth of protein in order to get you to choose healthier alternatives for yourself.

2.) The overall design of the image in terms of PAT was fair. It wasn’t the most eye catching or creative visual that I’ve ever seen, but the statistical data was most convincing. As far as the five instructional functions are concerned, it was organized and decorative. It was organized into statistical data and it was decorative by colors and clip art pictures. Utilizing the PAT model, the PRINCIPLES were fine; nothing particularly stood out. The ACTIONS portion was decent. They were repetitive, in that they repeated the numbers of product consumed; they lacked any real contrast to other alternatives. Their proximity with one another was too close, there was an overload on text, and alignment was slightly off. The TOOLS part of the PAT model was their strongest demonstration of the model. The colors and pictures were anesthetically pleasing, however the type and amount of text were distracting.

3.) One thing that could definitely enhance the message that this visual is trying to convey is to CONTRAST their ideas with others. If they are trying to prove a point that we are “over-proteined”, great!, but now provide us with alternatives to eating burgers, chicken, and hot dogs. Illustrate the benefits and positive factors to reduce protein consumption, as well as any side effects it might have or currently give us.

Overall, this was actually a very interesting lesson. I was not expecting that so much thought needed to go into how to manipulate or convey your message to get people interested? It is more clear after delving into this lesson WHY Marketing is so effective.