Word and Image: Get the Message?

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. But what happens when that picture is made up of nothing BUT words? Do we immediately get the picture’s message by looking at the terms in front of us? Or is the message lost within the overwhelming assortment of letters?


By looking at the picture below, I think we may find our answer.

Image by ehmaysink on www.deviantart.com

With just 78 words composing an image of a gun, deviantART member JayLynn Alise (her username being “ehmaysink”) is able to express a message that exceeds the amount of words used in her picture. By using negative words to create a controversial subject, Alise not only shows how words and images can work together to create design, but also succeeds in getting a message across to her audience: “forget firearms; we kill with the tongue.”

Alise’s art piece is just one example of how words and images come together to create design.  Although it may seem as if these two concepts belong exclusively to the realm of design, they might surprise you by popping up throughout our daily lives.

As consumers, we witness the relationship between words and images through advertisements and marketing. As readers, we encounter the relationship through book covers and comic books. Even as drivers we run into this relationship through our obedience to traffic signs and road signals. The connection between words and images is practically inescapable in today’s society. However, it is nevertheless effective in delivering messages to viewers.

So why does this relationship between words and images exist in the first place? What significance does it possibly serve?

By looking back at Alise’s art piece of above, we see that word and image are used not only to interact with each other, but also to interact with the viewer. Together they stimulate feelings and emotions in the viewer that a word or image could not do alone. The usage of words and images together may also leave a bigger impact. As the viewer tries to take something away from a piece of design, an image can leave the viewer with a mental image while words can leave the viewer with something to ponder over, even after they are no longer looking at the words and image together.

But who knows? Even though words and images together may hold so much power to express messages more effectively, they may also hold enough power to obscure messages through misapplication. It is then that we must ask ourselves if word and image’s relationship is essential to communicate with audiences or is instead unnecessary to begin with.

You be the judge.