Exercise 11: Visual metaphors

In this exercise, I was asked to choose one from the phrases below and create a drawn visual list of objects and subjects which could be used to symbolise them.

Reaching retirement; Dreams of romance; Broken relationship

Censorship of the press; High achievement; Economic catastrophe

The main point of the exercise is to extent of visual shorthand. Here materials can be used in such editorial contexts as newspapers, and articles in magazines. In addition, I can make a spider diagram around the phrase to generate other words.

Research

To start with, I wanted to do some research what is the general meaning of the visual metaphor. A visual metaphor is the representation of a person, place, thing, or idea using a visual image that suggests a particular association or point of similarity. Visual metaphors can be seen in abundance in cartoons, comic strips, magazines, newspapers, paintings and advertisements. A familiar example is a technique of juxtaposing. For instance, a picture of a sports car is juxtaposed with the image of a panther, suggesting that the product has comparable qualities of speed, power, and endurance.

Visual metaphors in advertising

Metaphors are very common in advertisements. They are created in order to be used as tools for conveying the message better and probably in a more powerful, attractive and different manner. The form that is used as a metaphor conveys something about the product or service. For instance, the presence of a beautiful woman or a handsome man in a perfume advertisement is conscious and is intended to generate the quality of the smell of the perfume by using something other than the smell, a photograph. It tries to substitute the unprintable experience of the product with an image.

Visual metaphors in magazines and newspapers

Newspapers and political magazines are the most crowded mediums of information communication. Mainly artists use their tools to ridicule political movements, and national situations and also create connections to history. I think, cartoons in newspapers help to ease the tension in society, and help to look at the current flows with humour and criticism.

Visual metaphors in art

Banksy is the pseudonym of a British graffiti artist, political activist and painter, whose identity is unconfirmed. His satirical street art combines dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique. His works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world. Banksy’s work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy, I personally feel uses visual metaphors in his own unique style to communicate his thoughts and ideas. And he does so brilliantly.

Dreams of romance

The traditional model of building relationships between individuals has taken a new form and is now being replaced by unrealistic expectations, ostentations in social media, or self-serving connections. Of course, this does not always happen, but this concept reflects the sad truth of modern life. Misleading dreams, inflated expectations, pretentious romance, and their mismatch with reality are suitable for visual metaphors. The relationship between two people is the phenomenon that I wanted to bring to attention. People began to forget about privacy, and the complexity of relationships, and in pursuit of gold-digging, sometimes couples forget about simple values ​​in which comfort and enjoyment can be found. We are dreaming of romance and special moments, but what always should be our minds – true value is being sincere and honest with ourselves. Below are some catchy illustrations I found on Pinterest.

Mind map

Sketches

Below are some of my sketches for the dreams of love metaphor. As I mentioned before, I took the direction of modern-day society, where people want to meet true love, and romance, but in real life face the challenges, such as lack of time, addiction to social media opinion, or relying too much on cliche standards. I showed those sketches to my husband, who is my main critique, he is all against the presence of social media in people’s relations, and all that has been shown through social media is considered just as a catchy picture. I think of this influence I converted the positive metaphor “dream of romance” into a different meaning, like the imagination of romance, fantasy, which is opposite to reality. He liked the idea, that I went to a different route, I hope that those visuals are clear enough.