What is a picture worth?
You’ve heard it before — a picture is worth a thousand words. Truthfully, I’ve tried to list a thousand words when I look at pictures, just to prove this very point. I’ve come up with words like pretty, elegant, charming, creative, colorful and more adjectives that describe the things I see in a picture. But I think the truth in the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words,” comes from the story that the picture is telling, rather than the words you can think of to describe it (Miller).
Photos have their own unique way of telling stories, sometimes more eloquently than words can. For example, take this picture below.
This picture delineates a bride gathered around her bridesmaids on the morning of her big wedding day. There are expressions of enjoyment, sentimentality, and excitement on each of the girls’ faces as they turn to face the bride. Before this photo, I imagine that this may be one of the first times they’ve seen the bride’s hair and makeup done from the morning. Therefore, they are full of emotions upon looking at her. I also imagine that after this photo, the girls celebrated by drinking champagne and then putting their dresses on later on. Additionally, this picture also uses a sensory technique to capture viewers by making them feel with the people in this photo. By seeing the pure emotions on their faces, it makes the audience react in a similar way.
This is one of the many examples of a photo that can tell dozens of pages worth of a story. Photos first became incorporated in storytelling with the birth of sketches and paintings. One of the first prominent paintings that told a dramatic story was Leonardo DaVinci’s Last Supper painting. Without knowledge of the back story behind this painting, one may see it and just think it sprouted from someone’s imagination. However, each brush stroke holds deep history and purpose.
Take a look at the Last Supper painting here. This historic work of art depicts Jesus and his 12 apostles eating dinner moments after Jesus reveals that one of them is going to betray him. This reveal delineates anger, shock and confusion across many of the apostles' faces. Jesus looks lost, saddened and betrayed as he sits in the center of the table. There are strong elements of design that also tie in the dramaticness of the painting (Zucker and Harris). The room is very dark, yet the outside is very light, meaning that its daytime but inside the room, dark times are ahead. Furthermore, the lines in the image point toward a focal point in the center – Jesus. The lines of the wall go in a diagonal direction toward the center of the painting because Jesus is meant to be the main focus of the artwork. The lines help by drawing our attention to his face and allow us to better understand the depth behind this (Zucker and Harris).
Paintings and photos like these play a pivotal role in the importance of visual design. With the proliferation of a dependency on visuals to keep our attention spans hooked, it’s important to point out why visuals are valuable to a story. Without the painting of the Last Supper above, the world would have a lesser understanding of this story, the way it felt when Jesus revealed this, and an integral part of the Catholic religion.
Aside from paintings, there are also a number of design elements that tell deeply rooted stories as well. For example, logo designs are likely the most symbolic visual that we see most commonly in everyday life. Logos are meant to represent the purpose or goal of a company. Take Nike as an example. The swoosh logo is meant to represent motion, speed and success, a powerful purpose in a brand for things like running shoes and athletic wear. The swoosh is more than just a check mark, it delineates agility, perseverance and athleticism.
Designers place meaning behind more designs than the average person would ever realize. Graphic designers pride themselves on their ability to make appealing and effective creative solutions for consumers.
Sometimes, much of the design value lies past the surface level, and much deeper within.
Citations
Miller, Kevin. “What Does a Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words Mean?” The Word Counter, 8 August 2020, https://thewordcounter.com/what-does-a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words-mean/. Accessed 28 April 2024.
Zucker, Steven, and Beth Harris. “Smarthistory – Leonardo, Last Supper.” Smarthistory, https://smarthistory.org/leonardo-last-supper/. Accessed 28 April 2024.