Visual Literacy Examples

Visual literacy is the ability to find meaning in image. Often we walk by many advertisements and pictures and take them for granted. Now a day’s information is given more in both words and images and it is essential that students develop the skills so they have an understanding of what the images are portraying. Visual literacy is very important because you can help kids or adults better clarify images or media that they might come across. For example, when a baby is born and while growing up, the child has to learn and recognize qualities or features to help them understand objects.
Reading and giving a message through an image is skill which can be obtained while growing up. Some are taught visual literacy as school and a few children are taught

by their parents. For Example, at school kids are given pictures to colour and using their visual literacy skills they know what is going on and what type of colours to use. Now of course you can’t give a child a picture and expect them to know what to colour and what is going on, for a few classes the teacher will have to explain and later on the child will obtain visual literacy skills. Basically being visually literate is reading an image that has no text and also being able to explain and understand what is happening in the picture.
An image can be analyze in many ways like how the person is standing or even the text being used. Most images that have girls and pink can be clearly understandable by the viewer that this image is for girls and vice versa for blue and a male in the picture. Being able to process an image by just looking at how the person is dressed, standing or their facial expression is very useful because your brain will quickly analyze who, what, where, when and why. For example, when you see an advertisement at the mall or in front of the store you can tell what the store sells and what it is about.
In the first image the company “Love’s Baby Soft.” Is advertising a baby powder for women who want to seem innocent.

The image is portraying that if you use this baby powder you will be sexy and smell clean which will attract men towards you. For example Axe, every time they advertise their products they make sure girls are in the advertisements because they are portraying if you use Axe, girls will come running to you. This advertisement is tricking women to think if you use this baby-powder it will make you look sexy and innocent like the girl in the advertisement. Another example can be, hair products because hair products are trying to say if you use this spray for your hair, your hair will look like what is shown on the box.
Love’s Baby Soft’s pathos is very clear and we can also see the audience which the company wants to attract. While looking at the image you are supposed to feel more open because of how the model is postured and also if you buy the product you will look like that too. Their pathos is also clear because of the model and colours used, if they put a beautiful model and pink in the advertisement, it will get customers that are insecure and want to look and feel like the model to buy the

product.
After viewing the first image of the product “Love’s Baby Soft”, someone would be surprised because of how the girl is dress and her body placement. Even though the advertisement was intended for females because you can tell by the text and the colour being used. This will also target males who want their wife to look like the model in the advertisement. For example, males at the store or looking through magazine will often buy products which will make their wife’s look better even though the wife doesn’t want it. Using the body placement and using a beautiful model will attract mainly men because if I was looking through a magazine I would pay more attention to the women advertisements than male.
The second image Reebok is advertising shoes for women and is portraying a strong message. This advertisement has a lot of meaning, Reebok is trying to say no matter what your religion is or even how you dress; you can use our classic running shoes. Reebok also has a tradition women dressed in her cultural dress and still wearing the shoes. Having the lady dressed up cultural will have more women open up and see that we can also wear Reebok Classic running shoes. For example, in 2014 now you see a lot of advertisements with men with turbans and other religious clothes on big advertisements which increase the confidence of other men who are scared of what others will think if they will wear the same product.
After viewing the advertisement one might feel very open and also more open. Advertisers often choose models which are dressed religiously or differently than the average person because they want customers at home who are shy to open up and buy the product. Reebok’s pathos is clear because of the model they have chosen to represent in the advertisement and they believe if we have someone dressed religiously then more religious dressed people will buy our product.
To conclude, being visually literate helps children and adults understand an image without text and being able to explain what is happening. Visual literacy skills are often developed while growing up because you are often given objects and images you have to understand without text. Being visually literate is reading an image that has no text and also being able to explain and understand what is happening in the picture.