Comments on: Are pictures the forgotten tool in public relations?

By: Great Series of Blog Posts: Visual Communication for Public Relations « Deep Exploration – User Community

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 04:59:31 +0000

[...] series of guest posts by professional illustrator and strategic communicator, Guy Downes, discusses visual communication for public relations professionals: the value, the challenges and the missed [...]

By: Where visual communication can help public relations in storytelling | Public relations and managing reputation

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:32:42 +0000

[...] in helping PR pros communicate and engage audiences more effectively. The first post discussed the power of visual communication and the third post will discuss barriers to visual communication adoption (and some [...]

By: Geoff Kelly

Geoff Kelly — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 01:51:38 +0000

Well done Guy – great stuff.

We vastly underuse visuals both in the graphic and photgraphic sense and also in the language we use.

The human brain has eveolved over millions of years and the old brain – the part that decides – loves visuals. Mainly because it mainly evolved before words were invented – roughly 40,000 years ago.

However, most visuals don’t work for us because they lack story, emotion focus and all the other elements we need to win hearts and minds.

Here we can use words that evoke emotions and images for the old brain to process. Not your standard core messages which just don’t work. I’m talking about clusters of words that are worth 1,000 pictures.

US marketing guru Doug Hall is famous for humbling CEOs and Marketing Directors at his tree-changing marketing hothouse Eureka Ranch. He asks 15 evidence-based questions, each with only two multiple choice answers. As Doug says, even if you guess you should statistically score 7.5. But these guys are the elite, so you would expect higher.

Nope, they average 6.

One example will show you why. It describes that you have some complex information on which you want to get a group of people to take action and asks which is the best method; creating a graphic that summarises and visually relates the material – or – using a formula of words.

The answer – verified through numerous laboratory and field tests – is a formula of words – but a special formula in the sense it is a story. Because the graphic is essentially still rational information, and the story evokes emotion and encompasses other powerful elements.

Sorry for the long post. But I wanted to both recognise that Guy has done us a great service and I support his recomendations, and at the same time show that the right words can (and need to be) at the centre of our high-impact communication.

Visuals are way underused by us, but so are the kind of words that make teh greatest difference. Hint: about the other guy, simple, concrete, high-contrast, strong verbs and nouns, good context, evoking emotion and especially fascination.

More power to you Guy

Best wishes

Geoff

By: The barriers to visual communication adoption | Public relations and managing reputation

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:19:17 +0000

[...] PR pros communicate and engage audiences more effectively. The first post discussed the power of visual communication and the second post discussed where visual communication can be useful in PR and different visual [...]

By: Annual reports as really useful public relations ...?? | Public relations and managing reputation

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 06:15:50 +0000

[...] Annual reports using visual communication [...]

By: Guy Downes

Guy Downes — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:28:18 +0000

Hi Davina, Craig, Peter and Sean – thanks so much for your comments. Obviously, I’m a big believer in the impact visual communications can have and love working in this area. What I also find really interesting is why images have taken on a lesser role compared to words. Taking a step back, it seems that as we grow older (especially in schools and education institutions) we are taught that pictures and words play different roles and not to think of them in the same light. Plus, we are taught that each can help us convey meaning but writing and reading overtakes in importance as we get older – I think we carry this preference through school and into the workplace. John Berger said in his book ‘Ways of seeing’, “seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognises before it can speak”. Plus, for the most part, kids seem to draw before they can write. I think overtime, life reverses this creative process – we forget how to draw and how to have the confidence to draw and be creative (regardless of how good we are). What do you think? Do you agree? I’d be interested in your thoughts if you had time. Cheers, Guy

By: Sean Williams

Sean Williams — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:41:12 +0000

I’m just terrified by this. I have a visual sense, but am by no means an artist or graphic designer. I’m also a “words guy,” so I love the well-crafted sentence, the pungent paragraph and heady discourse that only words provide.

Visual comms — see Edward Tufte — can indeed be hugely important and effective…but not by me! I guess I’ll have to make good friends with some creative sort, somewhere…

Sean
@commammo

By: Peter Hindmarsh

Peter Hindmarsh — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:07:01 +0000

Love your work GD
TV news producers can probably be classed as as amongst the worst offenders in visual literacy, so long as they try to keep images and words in sync. If the script mentions a cat, they seem to feel obliged to show a cat.
The best visual literacy seems to grow amongst readers of comics, where readers’ imaginations are left to do some of the work, especially between the panels.
PR agencies could use comics more frequently to support campaigs, such as the “street wise’ publications a few decades ago.

By: Craig Badings

Craig Badings — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:10:51 +0000

Agree, agree, agree. Guy is a consumate illustrator and visual communicator. He understand intricately the interface between illustration and how to use it to best effect to convey a message or engate an audience having spent a number of years in PR.
Thanks for reminding me again just how powerful visual comms can be. It is a highly underutilised comms tool.

By: Davina K. Brewer

Davina K. Brewer — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:36:10 +0000

The Bad Pitch Blog just did a post about press release alternatives, and I’ve written odes to pictures.

Pictures, graphics, great chart porn can tell the story so much better, faster than the words. It’s important as communicators to work with our clients, let them know when to tell vs. when to show. FWIW.