Abstract
One of the most important areas where visual communication is prominent today is marketing. Brands try to adopt to the visual world of today in order to make their communication with their target audience more meaningful and effective. This way, organizations, and therefore brands, take significant steps for differentiation from their competitors by forming their visual identity. Additionally, considering the current advertisements of brands, it is seen that visual narratives are highly abundant. In this context, brands which are starting to use visual communication effectively are gaining a broader place in the memories of their target audience by increasing brand awareness. As a result, it is believed that the significance of visual communication and identity is increasingly higher in terms of influencing existing and potential masses by being integrated into the visual world of today.
TopVisual Dimension Of Communication
A person is a being that prioritizes what is visual. This is because, although we utilize several of our senses for communication, for all individuals who have the capacity to see, the basis of learning, attitudes and behaviors is in direct interaction with visual content. A person assesses the reflections coming from around them within visual communication systems, and more of the time in their daily life, they direct their actions based on visual communication. This visual attitude is almost in the genes of people (Ketenci and Bilgili, 2006, p. 268). In this context, it may be argued that the sense of sight is one of the most important senses in people.
People identify and try to make sense of the objects, events and situations around them firstly by seeing them. Humanity has spent tens of thousands of years to develop this quality (Uçar, 2004, p. 17). Since the dawn of humanity, the most effective form of expression has included the pictures, shapes and symbols that are drawn. With these symbols, humans have aimed to transmit the thing they want to express in the shortest and clearest way possible. The first examples of the shortest and clearest form of expression, namely visual communication, were encountered with pictures and shapes in cave drawings. These symbols not only allowed communication among people living in those times but also left traces that have reached today in the form of knowledge about those people (Yaban, 2012, p. 973). In this sense, it may be seen that visual communication firstly emerged for the purposes of helping decision-making and transmitting information. Likewise, cave paintings and pictograms which are the oldest forms of visual communication were used to transmit information on marking territory, identifying dangers, finding and showing routes for migration and identifying locations of shelter and sources of food/drinks. Usage of such marks may be traced back to more than 200,000 years ago (Jaenichen, 2017, p. 10).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Corporate Communication: In the simplest terms, it can be defined as the integrated management of all communication processes in line with the strategic business objectives of the institutions.
Corporate Visual Identity: Corporate visual identity is the visual indicators that enable us to understand who and what the institution is.
Visual Communication: Visual communication is the transmission of information and ideas using symbols and imagery.
Visual Perception: Perception is the ability to interpret the information received from you and your senses.
Visual Design: Graphic design is a creative process, which involves organizing a two-dimensional or three-dimensional text and images to develop an image, or to visualize a thought.
Marketing Communication: Marketing communication is a concept that encompasses all the interaction of the products or services that the companies have to sell their products and services to the buyers.
Consumer Behavior: It can be defined as a process that includes the decisions about selecting, purchasing, using and disposing of products and services.
Brand Communication: It is the whole of the strategic communication activities planned for a brand to sustain its market activities without interruption.