{"id":1078,"date":"2025-08-15T08:34:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T08:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2025-08-15T14:32:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T14:32:18","slug":"issue-59-2-breaking-images-a-method-for-improving-design-students-visual-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-2-breaking-images-a-method-for-improving-design-students-visual-literacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Images: A Method for Improving Design Students\u2019 Visual Literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"sitecontainer\">\n<div class=\"pagecontainer\">\n<article class=\"vj-article\">\n<div class=\"articlesidebar\">\n<h5>Issue 59.2<\/h5>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-2-reflecting-on-the-august-2025-issue-considerations-nowadays-and-implications-for\">Reflecting on the August 2025 Issue \u2014 Considerations Nowadays and Implications For<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-2-research-led-pluralist-typographic-practices-case-studies-from-south-asia\">Research-Led Pluralist Typographic Practices: Case Studies from South Asia<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-2-the-role-of-text-alignment-on-response-speed-and-accuracy-when-reading-chinese-english-bilingual-traffic-signs\">The Role of Text Alignment on Response Speed and Accuracy When Reading Chinese-English Bilingual Traffic Signs<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-2-breaking-images-a-method-for-improving-design-students-visual-literacy\">Breaking Images: A Method for Improving Design Students\u2019 Visual Literacy<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-2-addressing-uncertainty-in-llm-outputs-for-trust-calibration-through-visualization-and-user-interface-design\">Addressing Uncertainty in LLM Outputs for Trust Calibration Through Visualization and User Interface Design<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-2-dfi-a-seat-at-the-table-designing-for-ai-with-strategy-vision-and-collaboration\">A Seat at the Table: Designing for AI with Strategy, Vision, and Collaboration<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-2-dfi-the-changing-definition-of-designers-in-the-age-of-generative-ai\">The Changing Definition of Designers in the Age of Generative AI<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-2-dfi-the-human-touchpoint-recommendations-for-thoughtful-ai-feature-design\">The Human Touch(point): Recommendations for Thoughtful AI Feature Design<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/Issue-59-2\/Visible-Language-59-2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Download Issue 59.2 \u27a4<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"articlecontent\">\n<h1>Breaking Images: A Method for Improving Design Students\u2019 Visual Literacy<\/h1>\n<h3>Stuart Medley<sup>a,b<\/sup>, and Hanadi Haddad<sup>b<\/sup><\/h3>\n<h4 style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">a: UNIDCOM, IADE, Portugal; b: Edith Cowan University, Australia<br \/>Corresponding author: Stuart Medley (s.medley[at]ecu.edu.au)<\/h4>\n<div class=\"abstractbox\">\n<p><span class=\"smallblueheading\">Abstract:<\/span> In pursuit of competitive advantage, a growing number of organizations are adopting design\u2011thinking strategies with a strong emphasis on visual methods. As a result, graphic design education must increase a focus on cultivating visual literacy as a thinking tool, in addition to its traditional processes for producing polished artifacts. This article proposes such a pedagogical approach; teaching students to deconstruct an image into pictures of differing levels of fidelity. The spell of realism broken, students can begin embarking on their own stylistic visual communication paths. Drawing on J.J. Gibson\u2019s distinction between image and picture, students explore how deliberate choices of pictorial form can advance specific communication goals. Classroom activities encourage them to imagine a world without text \u2014 where meaning must be carried solely by pictures \u2014 and to challenge the cultural assumption that photographic accuracy is synonymous with effective depiction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"keywordsbox\">\n<p><span class=\"smallblueheading\">Keywords:<\/span> graphic design education; studio exercises; visual communication; visual literacy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"viewarticlebtn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/Issue-59-2\/breaking-images-a-method-for-improving-design-students-visual-literacy.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Download PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"articlepdfviewer\">\n<object \ndata=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/Issue-59-2\/breaking-images-a-method-for-improving-design-students-visual-literacy.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\"><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/Issue-59-2\/breaking-images-a-method-for-improving-design-students-visual-literacy.pdf\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" style=\"border: none;\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/object>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"authorbox\">\n<p><span class=\"smallblueheading\">Authors<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Stuart Medley<\/strong> is a research fellow at UNIDCOM, Portugal, and an honorary associate professor of design at Edith Cowan University exploring the application of comics for legal contracts and in the health sector. He authored the book The Picture in Design and other publications, including for Wiley\u2019s Companion to Illustration. He makes comics to improve employment and housing services, and has worked as an illustrator for 25 years with clients including Anglicare and Austal Ships in Australia, and the Imperial War Museums in the UK. He is a co-founder and art director for Hidden Shoal, a record label with a roster of international artists, with the BBC, Canadian Broadcasting, and Showtime as clients. He is a co-founder and funding director of the Perth Comic Arts Festival.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr. Hanadi Haddad<\/strong> has a background in interactive media, design and interactive television. She is a lecturer and supervisor at Edith Cowan University in design in the undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Her research interests include strategic visual communication, design thinking, service design and innovation, co-design\/creation, usability, design theory and work integrated learning. She was previously a post-doctoral research associate at Murdoch University. A graduate of Curtin University, her PhD involved multidisciplinary research into visual modalities of character agents between the School of Design and School of Computer Science.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"viewarticlebtn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/Issue-59-2\/breaking-images-a-method-for-improving-design-students-visual-literacy.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Download PDF<\/a><br \/>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"articlecitebox\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"blueurllink\">DOI being generated<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cite this article:<\/strong><br \/>Medley, S., &#038; Haddad, H. (2025). Breaking images: A method for improving design students\u2019 visual literacy. Visible Language, 59(2), 153\u2013175. https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-2-breaking-images-a-method-for-improving-design-students-visual-literacy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>First published online August 15, 2025. \u00a9 2025 Visible Language \u2014 this article is open access, published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.<\/p>\n<p><pre>https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal<\/pre>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"vlconsortiumheading\"><strong>Visible Language Consortium:<\/strong><\/span><br \/>University of Leeds (UK)<br \/>University of Cincinnati (USA)<br \/>North Carolina State University (USA)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Issue 59.2 Reflecting on the August 2025 Issue \u2014 Considerations Nowadays and Implications For Research-Led Pluralist Typographic Practices: Case Studies from South Asia The Role of Text Alignment on Response Speed and Accuracy When Reading Chinese-English Bilingual Traffic Signs Breaking Images: A Method for Improving Design Students\u2019 Visual Literacy Addressing Uncertainty in LLM Outputs for &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/issue-59-2-breaking-images-a-method-for-improving-design-students-visual-literacy\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Breaking Images: A Method for Improving Design Students\u2019 Visual Literacy&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issue-59-2","category-research-article","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1183,"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions\/1183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visible-language.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}