Journal of Visual Literacy

ISSN: 1051-144X (Print) 2379-6529 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjvl20

Attending to the visual aspects of visual

storytelling: using art and design concepts to
interpret and compose narratives with images

Wendy R. Williams

To cite this article: Wendy R. Williams (2019) Attending to the visual aspects of visual storytelling:
using art and design concepts to interpret and compose narratives with images, Journal of Visual
Literacy, 38:1-2, 66-82, DOI: 10.1080/1051144X.2019.1569832

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1051144X.2019.1569832

Published online: 11 Apr 2019.

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JOURNAL OF VISUAL LITERACY
2019, VOL. 38, NOS. 1-2, 66–82
https://doi.org/10.1080/1051144X.2019.1569832

ARTICLE

Attending to the visual aspects of visual storytelling:

using art and design concepts to interpret and compose
narratives with images
Wendy R. Williams
Department of Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication, Arizona State University, Mesa,
AZ, USA

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Visual storytelling comes in many forms (e.g. films, comics, photo- Visual storytelling; visual
graphs, commercials) and is used for a range of purposes (e.g. to narrative; design elements;
entertain, inform, persuade). Technological advances are enabling visual analysis; visual
non-specialists to be consumers and producers of these works. composition
Although many people are growing up surrounded by visual
works, this does not mean that they carefully attend to images.
Education must prepare students to navigate the changing visual
landscape. This study, which investigates an undergraduate Visual
Narratives course taught in spring 2017 in the United States,
focuses on students’ uses of art and design elements. A content
analysis of 124 course documents shows a wide range of art and
design elements at work in students’ visual narrative analyses (27
elements) and original compositions (26 elements), with many
elements overlapping (21 shared). These results suggest that
teaching a wide range of art and design elements can help stu-
dents acquire a flexible toolkit for reading and composing differ-
ent kinds of visual texts, expanding their visual literacy. Rather
than serving as an end goal, this foundational knowledge offers a
focused way of looking that could be combined with other lenses
(critical race theory, feminist theory, etc.).

Visual messages are all around us (Felten, 2008), thanks in large part to new technolo-
gies (Millum, 2009). From a smartphone, one can scroll through the day’s photos and
news stories, watch how-to videos, and share photos and videos of important mile-
stones with friends. Desktop publishing enables students to produce high quality
works with images (George, 2002). Streaming services allow people to view movies
and TV shows with just a few clicks, and some art museum collections can now be
accessed online. Non-specialists can take and edit professional-looking photos (Felten,
2008), record movies with soundtracks and special effects, and even construct ori-
ginal videogames.

CONTACT Wendy R. Williams Wendy.R.Williams@asu.edu Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication,

Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ, USA
ß 2019 International Visual Literacy Association
 JOURNAL OF VISUAL LITERACY 67

Although people are encountering – and even making – visual compositions in

their daily lives (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006), it does not automatically follow that
they are deliberately considering the visual aspects of these works (Avgerinou, 2009).
To become informed senders and receivers of visual messages, it is necessary to stop,
look, and really pay attention to images (Berger, 1973). Yet what should people attend
to as they read and compose visual messages? Is it important to notice representa-
tions of gender, class, or race? Should viewers pick up on period-specific details con-
tained within the work itself, make connections to the life of the artist, explore the
place of the piece within its cultural history, or learn about production history?
Perhaps attention should be paid to the viewer, who brings meaning to any text.
After all, Berger (1973) writes, ‘The way we see things is affected by what we know or
what we believe’ (p. 8). Within literary studies, scholars draw on a range of perspec-
tives to make sense of written texts (e.g. feminism, Marxism, critical race theory, New
Historicism, history, biography, cultural studies, reader response). While many of these
perspectives can also be applied to visual texts (George, 2002), it is probably no sur-
prise that literary theory fails to directly and systematically address the artistry and
design of visual works. When working with images, it is necessary to have language
and structures to discuss visual elements and relationships (Emanuel & Challons-
Lipton, 2013).
Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), who present a theory of visual grammar in their
book Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, state there is an ‘urgent need for
developing adequate ways [for] talking about the visual’ (p. 34). More research is
needed to understand how to transform this idea into actual teaching and learning in
college classrooms. Emanuel and Challons-Lipton (2013) write, ‘Most undergraduate
curricula do little or nothing to enrich students’ visual literacy’ (p. 12).
This article shares findings from a study of six students in a Visual Narratives course
taught in spring 2017 at a university in the United States. The guiding question for
the study asks, ‘Which art and design elements do students employ as they analyse
and construct visual narratives?’ In all, 124 course documents are examined using con-
tent analysis (Bazerman & Prior, 2004). Findings show that the participants use a wide
range of art and design elements in their visual narrative analysis papers and creative
projects. These results suggest that working with art and design elements can help
students acquire a flexible toolkit (New London Group, 1996) for interpreting and com-
posing visual texts, which can also strengthen their visual literacy.

Literature review
Visual literacy
Multiple definitions of visual literacy have emerged over the last few decades
(Avgerinou & Pettersson, 2011; Blummer, 2015; Brumberger, 2011; Emanuel &
Challons-Lipton, 2013). Debes (1968), who is credited with coining the term, describes
visual literacy as the ‘strategies and skills one needs to make sense of visual images’
(quoted in Serafini, 2014, p. 21). On the other hand, Messaris (1993) argues that visual
literacy is necessary as a defence, ‘to combat the potential for ‘manipulation and mis-
information’ in images (p. 250) (quoted in Blummer, 2015, p. 2).
68 W. R. WILLIAMS

In one study, Brumberger (2011) found that students missed important historical
and cultural context clues in images. Specifically, these students misdated war photos,
failing to pick up on clues like the style of uniforms, and they had issues identifying
settings, buildings, and clothing. Failing to notice factual information in images limits
the viewer’s reading of visual texts and may lead to misunderstandings. As Avgerinou
and Pettersson (2011) explain, ‘Prior experience and context are very important to the
perception of content’ (p. 8).
People with heightened visual literacy can get more out of the texts they encoun-
ter. In addition, having ‘a working knowledge of … images and an accompanying
vocabulary to describe them’ can give consumers an advantage (Emanuel & Challons-
Lipton, 2013, p. 11). Avgerinou (2009) has suggested that visual literacy is ‘among the
most critical’ literacies ‘necessary to survive the daily challenges of the 21st century’
(p. 32).
Visual literacy includes ‘visual perception, visual language, visual learning, visual
thinking, and visual communication’ (Avgerinou & Pettersson, 2011, p. 5). Furthermore,
some of the key visual ‘competencies’ include ‘knowledge of visual vocabulary, know-
ledge of visual conventions, … visualization, … critical viewing, … and constructing
meaning’ (Avgerinou, 2009, pp. 29–30). While visual literacy definitions have changed
over time, more recently emphasis has been placed on ‘ability’ rather than ‘skill’
(Avgerinou & Pettersson, 2011, p. 10) and on visual literacy as ‘a social practice’ rather
than an individual one (Serafini, 2014, p. 22). There has also been more focus placed
on the role of visual thinking (Avgerinou & Pettersson, 2011).
My own definition of visual literacy has been influenced by Kennedy’s (2010) sug-
gestion that ‘a visually literate person can read and write visual language, can encode
and decode visual language’, as well as Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) ideas about
visual grammar and design and Serafini’s (2014) notion that ‘being visually literate
requires the ability to work across a variety of modes’ (p. 23). I define visual literacy as
the ability to interpret and construct visual messages with an awareness of visual ele-
ments (e.g. colour, shape, position) and forms (e.g. film, comic books, photography),
making choices appropriate to the particular text and context. Like Felten (2008),
I believe that visual literacy ‘can be learned in ways analogous to textual literacy. With
training and practice, people can develop the ability to recognize, interpret, and
employ the distinct syntax and semantics of different visual forms’ (p. 60). Visual liter-
acy education is essential in today’s world.

Visual literacy education

Visual literacy can be taught and learned (Avgerinou & Pettersson, 2011). Avgerinou
(2009) recommends that educators ‘start taking systematic steps’ to teach visual liter-
acy (p. 32). While visual analysis has been part of college writing since World War II in
the form of ‘advertising analysis’ exploring ‘propaganda and semantics’, this work typ-
ically did not focus on the ways that ‘images, layout, or graphics actually communi-
cated meaning’ (George, 2002, p. 21). The visual mode has also been used in college
composition to make assignments ‘more interesting’, to reach students who favour
images over writing (p. 21), or to ask students ‘how a particular image made them
 JOURNAL OF VISUAL LITERACY 69

feel’ (p. 22). George (2002) sums up the history of the use of visuals in college educa-
tion as follows: ‘there runs an ongoing suspicion that the visual must somehow be
important to writing. It just is not entirely clear how’ (p. 22).
Felten (2008) suggests that ‘in our rapidly changing world, visual literacy … should
be recognized among the fundamental goals of a liberal education’ (p. 60). In addition,
Frey and Fisher (2008) write, ‘A fundamental goal of education is to teach effective
communication … and the challenge to any communicator is to create accurate mes-
sages and interpret the messages of others with equal skill’ (p. 1). The National
Council of Teachers of English (2005, 2009) recommends that students have experien-
ces interpreting and constructing visual compositions yet admits that there is a lack of
strategies for teaching visual literacy. This gap is problematic.
Emanuel and Challons-Lipton (2013) write, ‘One becomes visually literate by study-
ing the techniques used to create images, learning the vocabulary of shapes and col-
ours, identifying the characteristics of an image that give it meaning, and developing
the cognitive skills necessary to interpret or create the ideas that inform an image’ (p.
12). When it comes to examining the art and design elements of visual compositions,
there seems to be little agreement about what to teach (Blummer, 2015). Albers
(2009) suggests focusing on orientation, vectors, size, volume, colour, and gaze.
Connors (2012) writes that shape, perspective, and left-right structure are keys to
understanding comic books. Tan and Guo (2010) recommend focusing on layout.
Regardless of the specific art and design elements taught, it is important that students
can select which ones they will use (New London Group, 1996) because texts can vary
enormously and all readers and writers bring different insights and talents with them
to every reading and writing act, whether they are working with traditional texts or
multimodal works such as visual narratives.

Teaching visual storytelling

Visual narratives, or image-rich stories, have existed for centuries. They can be found
in the form of cave and tomb paintings, scrolls, mosaics, vases, sculptures, and stained
glass (Beckett, 1994), as well as more recent forms like films, photo essays, comic
books, videogames, animation, and Facebook pages (Emanuel & Challons-Lipton,
2013). The balance of words to visuals varies from one visual narrative to the next,
with some works more ‘visually dominant’ than others (e.g. wordless picturebooks)
(Serafini, 2014, p. 17). Visual narratives also vary in terms of the stories they tell, rang-
ing from those with more or less narrative detail. Stories may be linear or non-linear,
and writers may adhere to traditions and culture or push boundaries, experimenting
and innovating. In other words, the category of ‘visual narratives’ encompasses a wide
range of texts in terms of both visuals and storytelling.
Similar to traditional works in print, visual narratives can serve a range of functions:
to inform (e.g. documentaries), persuade (e.g. commercials), or entertain (e.g. movies)
(Avgerinou, 2009). Knowing how these narratives work can help readers make sense
of these texts and read them more carefully. Being able to critically analyse the visual
narratives of everyday life is important because visual messages can be ‘complicated
and sophisticated’ (George, 2002, p. 15), requiring people to ‘read between the lines’
70 W. R. WILLIAMS

(Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 14). Also, knowing how to construct visual narratives
can be useful for sharing information with others, whether in personal circles or pro-
fessional settings.
As Ellis (2003) has written, ‘Stories are the way humans make sense of their worlds’
(p. 32). It is valuable to learn about narrative structures because so much of the mater-
ial sent and received today is arranged in narrative form. When a doctor asks, ‘What
happened?’ the answer that follows often comes in the form of a story. This happens
because ‘we understand the world narratively’ (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. 17).
Many news reports are also arranged in story form, and some researchers present find-
ings as narratives to make their research ‘more accessible to readers’ and to ‘capture
the complexities’ of the research site (Williams, 2018, p. 32).
Visual narrative assignments have been used in English courses as a way for students
to respond creatively to literature they have read. For example, students have been
asked to produce collages, paintings, comics (Seglem & Witte, 2009), and illuminated
texts (Williams, 2014). These assignments ask students to process what they have
learned and to think in different modes. Some modes of visual storytelling used in
English courses have included photography (Verlaan, 2018), drawing (Davila, 2004), clay,
collage (Albers, 2007), and video production (Beach, 2007). Each of these modes offers
different possibilities and limitations (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). For example, ‘comics
is a medium confined to still images, bereft of sound and motion’, and something as
simple as a small gesture can be easier to capture on film than in a comic because film
allows for continuous motion (Eisner, 2008, p. 116). When students work with multiple
forms of storytelling, they can experience for themselves what different modes offer. In
addition, when students create original visual narratives, they apply ‘principles of learn-
ing’ such as ‘imagination, vision, and problem solving’ (Albers & Harste, 2007, p. 13).
They must consider form and audience (Benson, 2008; Swenson et al., 2006) and may
even draw on personal experiences in these works (Hughes & Robertson, 2010; Miller,
2007). These compositions invite students to think about design as well.

Guiding theory
The concept of design, as articulated by the New London Group (1996), is central to
this study. The New London Group (1996) writes, ‘we are both inheritors of patterns
and conventions of meaning and at the same time active designers of meaning’
(p. 65).
These scholars define metalanguage as ‘a language for talking about language,
images, texts, and meaning-making interactions’ (p. 77). They explain:
We should be comfortable with fuzzy-edged, overlapping concepts. Teachers and learners
should be able to pick and choose from the tools offered. They should also feel free to
fashion their own tools. Flexibility is critical because the relationship between descriptive
and analytical categories and actual events is, by its nature, shifting, provisional, unsure,
and relative to the contexts and purposes for analysis (p. 77).

Instead of seeing metalanguage as formalism, the New London Group (1996) sug-
gests it is ‘quite flexible and open ended’, ‘a tool kit for working on semiotic activities’
(p. 77).
 JOURNAL OF VISUAL LITERACY 71

Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) also point to ‘the concept of design’ as useful, ‘both
as a category with general significance in representation and communication, and as a
crucial category for developing the curricula of institutionalized education’ (p. 34). In
their theory of visual grammar, they make the comparison that just as creative and
technical writers share a grammar, those working in art and more technical forms of
visual communication similarly share a visual grammar. Furthermore, they recognize
that different visual forms share some overlapping elements. Their concept of visual
grammar is framed broadly enough to cover a range of visual modes: ‘oil painting as
well as magazine layout, the comic strip as well as the scientific diagram’ (p. 3).
Finally, this study is guided by Serafini’s (2014) work on the elements of art, design,
and visual composition. He presents several frameworks for working with visual texts,
drawing on visual communication concepts from Dondis (1973) and Kress and van
Leeuwen (2006). Serafini (2014) writes that visual frameworks ‘allow us to consider the
visual grammars, elements of composition, and meaning potentials of the visual
images and multimodal ensembles that we encounter in our daily lives’ (p. 67). His
work supports Avgerinou’s (2009) observation that ‘knowledge of the basic compo-
nents (i.e. point, line, shape, form, space, texture, light, colour, motion) of visual lan-
guage’ is an essential component of visual literacy (p. 29). In addition, Serafini (2014)
explains that a mode (e.g. photography, painting) is ‘a system of visual and verbal
entities created within or across various cultures to represent and express meanings’
(p. 12). Modes may include ‘textual elements’, ‘visual images’, and ‘design elements’ in
print compositions; however, for digital compositions, modes may also include ‘sound
effects, moving images, and other digitally rendered elements’ (p. 13). Serafini (2014)
suggests that design ‘is about the transformation of these modes for the designer’s
purposes. This transformation gives agency and voice to the designer’ (p. 52). These
ideas ultimately helped shape the Visual Narratives course I created.

A visual narratives course

This study examines coursework produced for ENG/COM 394: Visual Narratives, an
undergraduate course I developed and taught for the first time in spring 2017. Classes
met 2.5 hours, once per week, for 15 weeks. The goals were for students to (1) work
with a range of visual narratives, considering the possibilities and limitations of differ-
ent forms of visual storytelling, (2) analyse the art and design elements at work in vis-
ual narratives, and (3) compose visual narratives that effectively employ art and design
elements. Throughout the semester, students worked with many types of visual narra-
tives, including videogames, picturebooks, comic books, graphic novels, photo essays,
TV shows, movies, animation, short films, vines, commercials, and music videos (see
Appendix 1 for a course overview). The use of multiple forms responds to Serafini’s
(2014) suggestion that students need to be able to interpret and compose multiple
types of visual texts to develop visual literacy.
Course readings offered a toolkit of language and structures for talking about visual
texts (see Table 1 for an outline of key concepts from the readings). Analysis projects
included a videogame presentation and four papers: (1) picturebook analysis, (2) comic
book or graphic novel analysis, (3) film analysis, and (4) animation analysis. In these
72 W. R. WILLIAMS

Table 1. Art and design elements in course readings.

Author Course reading Art and design elements
Serafini (2014) Reading the Visual (Chapter 5) dot, line, shape, colour, size, scale,
position, orientation, typography, bor-
ders, motifs, symbols, gaze, point of
view, modality, salience, etc.
Hintz and Tribunella (2013) Reading Children’s Literature relation of words/images, book size,
(Chapter 5) picture size, composition, colour, line,
medium, setting, text within pic-
tures, etc.
Eisner (2008) Graphic Storytelling and stereotypes, animal characteristics,
Visual Narrative symbols, apparel, out-of-place objects,
surprise, dialogue, rhythm, etc.
Golden (2001) Reading in the Dark (Appendix 1) framing/shots, camera angles, camera
movement, editing techniques, mise-
en-scene, etc.
Block (2008) The Visual Story contrast, affinity, space, line, shape,
tone, colour, movement, rhythm, etc.

assignments, students selected the visual narrative to analyse and the art and design
elements relevant to that particular text. They were encouraged to incorporate photo-
graphs and screen shots to support their arguments. Students also completed in-class
analysis work (e.g. film guides).
In addition to this analysis work, students applied their knowledge of art and
design elements to four original creative projects: (1) a picturebook, comic book, or
graphic novel project, (2) a photo essay project, (3) a short film or video project, and
(4) a course reflection project presented in narrative form. For these creative projects,
students selected their story content, design, and materials. They also wrote artist
statements for these works, briefly summarizing the story, materials/process, and visual
elements at work in the piece. This coursework ultimately became part of the study
explained below.

Study design
This study asks, ‘Which art and design elements do students employ as they analyse
and construct visual narratives?’ To answer this question, this study uses content ana-
lysis (Bazerman & Prior, 2004; Bazerman, 2006) with students’ course documents. This
study took place at a large research university in the southwest region of the United
States, at one of its newer and smaller campuses. Approximately 5,000 students are
based at this campus, including many engineering and business students. When I
offered this course in spring 2017, it was a new elective that primarily attracted
English majors.
The university’s institutional review board approved the study, and then I invited the
seven students in the course to participate. Six students signed consent forms and joined
the study. The consent forms specified, ‘Participating in this study will not affect your
course grade’. The six participants in this study include Gloria, Tim, Raul, Jen, David, and
James (pseudonyms used for all participants), who ranged in age from 21 to 36.
After I posted students’ semester grades, I collected course documents from
Blackboard. These 124 items include 23 analysis papers, 43 creative projects and
related photographs, 17 artist statements, 27 in-class activities, and 14 sets of
 JOURNAL OF VISUAL LITERACY 73

instructor notes. This study employs content analysis (Bazerman, 2006; Bazerman &
Prior, 2004) with these course documents to understand students’ uses of art and
design elements. Bazerman (2006) explains that this approach ‘provides a quantitative
view of what a text talks about. In its most simple form content analysis identifies the
different people, things, or actions a text reports and counts the instances of each’
(p. 83). When I read through each document in NVivo, I coded sections that pertained
to a particular design element. The students typically had already labelled the section
that I was coding, as in the following example of ‘animal characteristics’:
We see animal characteristics as he grits his fang-like teeth. ‘The use of these animal
based stereotypes speeds the reader into the plot and helps the storyteller gain the
reader’s acceptance for the action of his characters’ (Eisner, 2008, p. 14). Even though we,
as the audience, know absolutely nothing about this new character on screen, his
appearance tells us about him. His fangs, his beady glowing eyes, and his grizzly beard all
show animal-like characteristics that are later shown through his violent actions. (from
Tim’s analysis of Cowboy Bebop)

After coding all of the documents, I verified the tallies for each design element and
arranged this information into two tables.
By using tables, it is not my intention to obscure differences in texts or their read-
ers. I acknowledge that visual narratives have different characteristics, are produced
for particular purposes, and are constructed using available tools and materials. These
texts are composed and consumed in specific social, historical, and cultural contexts. I
present data in the form of tables to highlight patterns that could help inform visual
pedagogy. Presenting results in this way provides snapshot summaries of a group’s
experiences during one semester. Results are discussed below.

Results
In answer to the research question (‘Which art and design elements do students
employ as they analyse and construct visual narratives?’), it appears that a wide range
of art and design elements – such as colour, shape, lighting, size/scale, position, etc. –
are at work in students’ analyses and compositions. Specifically, 27 art and design ele-
ments (849 coded items) are used in their analysis work and 26 elements (420 coded
items) are used in their original compositions. These results can be found in Tables 2
and 3. In these tables, examples of coded items from the study are in quotation marks
underneath the concepts.
Some of these concepts (e.g. text/typography, borders, relation of words/images)
are especially relevant to visual narratives in print form. Others (e.g. camera angles,
camera movement, sound) are associated with moving images, such as films. Others
(e.g. colour, shape, position) are not tied to particular forms.

Art and design elements in students’ analyses

Students’ analyses employ a wide range of art and design elements. As Table 2 shows,
27 different art and design elements appear in their papers, film guides, and other
class work. In their papers – assignments that asked students to choose a visual narra-
tive to analyse and any art and design elements pertinent to that work – students
74 W. R. WILLIAMS

Table 2. Art and design elements students discussed in their visual analyses.
Concept Totals for student- Totals for all analysis
Example of this code selected uses (e.g. papers) activities (e.g. guides)
Colour, Brightness, Tones, Saturation 122 177
‘Scott [is] always in black’
Shape 56 75
‘lots of round, safe shapes’
Lighting, Shadows, Silhouettes 40 78
‘backlighting behind Tina Sparkle’
Sound 35 83
‘sounds of footsteps’
Size, Scale 29 35
‘relatively close to the same size [and] equal in power’
Camera Angles, Shots 28 69
‘intro shows close up of each character’
Text, Typography 24 25
‘“Comic Sans MS” font like style’
Borders, Frames, Surface Dividers, Panels 23 45
‘Cheyenne framed in doorway’
Position 19 20
‘he is above … showing how much more powerful he is’
Camera Movement 17 49
‘camera zooms in the moment she pulls a man’s eye out’
Salience 17 17
‘wearing a bright yellow outfit, she stands out’
Editing, Flashbacks, Sequencing of Cuts 15 34
‘continuous cutting from the mom to the competition’
Space 12 21
‘psychotic character, … absurd angles, … ambiguous space’
Modality 11 12
‘a low modality cartoon’
Line 10 15
‘many vertical lines parallel to the characters’
Contrast 9 18
‘outside the trees are dark and the night sky is bright’
Relation of Words, Images 8 8
‘we got more out of the visuals than we did the wording’
Medium, Materials, Tools, Process 7 9
‘[watercolour] was used for the backgrounds’
Symbol, Motif 7 7
‘clover … foreshadowing … the … conclusion’
Rhythm, Speed 6 7
‘as … [the] fist flies toward Asimov, the action is slowed down’
Stereotypes, Assumptions 6 7
‘the women … are more sexually drawn with cleavage’
Mise en Scene 5 16
‘trophy shelves are purposely in shot’
Animal Characteristics 4 7
‘[she] sits like a frog … mouth widened … hops around’
Vanishing Point 2 7
‘railroad tracks into the sunset’
Orientation, Page Layout 2 4
‘as it originates from Japan, the story reads right to left’
Gaze 2 2
‘eyes looking toward the reader … we are part of the story’
Surprise 0 2
‘the dust bunnies in the attic … jump out at her’

discuss colour (122) far more than any other element. This is likely because of the role
colour plays in society. Pastoureau (2008), who has written on the history of different
colours, points out that colour is symbolically important, structuring how people and
groups think. For example, children in some cultures learn early to fear the dark forest,
 JOURNAL OF VISUAL LITERACY 75

associate white with purity, and connect red with love and anger. Put another way,
seeing is ‘cultural’ (Fleckenstein, 2008, p. 13). ‘Where, how, and when we evoke
images, as well as what those images mean, are tied to what Jay (1994) called our sco-
pic regimes’ (Fleckenstein, 2008, p. 12). ‘The physical environment’, ‘cultural artifacts’
and ‘abstract cultural rules … influence how and what we see’ (p. 13).
After colour, the most commonly used elements in students’ analyses are shape
(56), lighting (40), sound (35), size/scale (29), camera angles (28), text/typography (24),
and borders (23). It is unclear why students have gravitated toward these particular
elements. Perhaps they feel comfortable using these concepts because of their prior
knowledge. Perhaps these concepts are simply easier to grasp. Another possibility is
that these concepts are important in many types of visual storytelling.
The concepts near the bottom of Table 2 are those that appear less often in stu-
dents’ analysis work. Surprise does not appear in their papers, but it does appear
twice in class work. Also, students’ papers rarely refer to gaze (2), orientation/page lay-
out (2), vanishing point (2), or animal characteristics (4). These ideas may be unfamiliar
to students, difficult to grasp, or seem less useful. Students may need help seeing
how vanishing points create depth (Block, 2008), or in the case of gaze, that ‘whether
participants in an image are looking directly at the viewer or away from her changes
the way that viewer interacts with an image’ (Serafini, 2014, p. 64). Granted, some ele-
ments simply appear less often in visual storytelling. For example, characters with ani-
mal characteristics, such as a smart person with owl-like glasses or a cunning
character that resembles a fox (Eisner, 2008), occur less frequently than colour.

Art and design elements in students’ original visual narratives

Students’ own visual narratives similarly employ a great number of art and design ele-
ments. Table 3 shows the 26 elements at work in their original compositions. Students
discuss medium/materials (41) and editing (22) often in relation to these works, which
is to be expected. As the creators of these visual narratives, the students are intimately
familiar with how their own works were made, and artist statement directions specific-
ally asked that they comment on materials and process. Colour (35) and shape (20)
again feature prominently at the top of this list.
Some of the art and design elements that students employ the least in their creative
works include stereotypes/assumptions (1), modality (1), rhythm/speed (1), and texture
(1). These concepts may be less familiar to students, harder to grasp, or appear to lack
usefulness. Concepts near the bottom of the list, and those not appearing at all, may
require additional teaching. In the case of stereotypes, for example, students may need
to reflect on their own preconceptions while working with visual texts. Increased
instructional time and examples may be required to more effectively teach
some elements.

Comparing analysis and construction work

In addition to considering analysis and construction results separately, it can also be
illuminating to place these results side by side. Looking at Tables 2 and 3 together
76 W. R. WILLIAMS

reveals that there are several art and design elements students use to describe others’
visual narratives but not their own: relation of words and images (8), symbol/motif (7),
animal characteristics (4), vanishing point (2), and gaze (2). These elements may be
challenging for novice artists to apply to their own visual narratives. For example,
depicting characters with animal characteristics can be useful in comics ‘to personify
actors quickly’ (Eisner, 2008, p. 14), but merging human and animal forms can be a
complicated task for those new to drawing. Also, planning for symbols/motifs in a
work takes time, probably more time than these assignments permitted. There were
also design elements that students in this study used exclusively with their own works.
These include humour (6), movement/action (3), and texture (1). Here, the element of
humour is interesting. It may be that people tend to appreciate their own sense of
humour above others’.
Placing these two tables side by side also reveals a significant finding of this study:
the students use many of the same elements to talk about their own and others’
works. Specifically, there is an overlap of 21 concepts used in both analysis and con-
struction. This suggests a high degree of transferability of art and design elements
between reading and composing tasks. The students use a range of techniques in
their creative projects, and in their reflections they treat these projects as seriously as
they treat published works. I had expected that students would use a smaller range of
concepts to discuss their own creative projects. Whether these students analyse and
compose visual messages with ‘equal skill’ (Frey & Fisher, 2008, p. 1) requires further
investigation, but it is clear they use some tools for both jobs. Encouraging students
to build an expansive toolkit of art and design elements appears to be one way to
support visual literacy in the college classroom.

A toolkit of art and design elements

This study shows that art and design elements aid students in attending to the visual
aspects of visual storytelling. Students can learn to look closely (Berger, 1973) and
draw on the metalanguage of design. Having access to a ‘flexible … tool kit’ (New
London Group, 1996, p. 77) seems to have encouraged these students to slow down
and read and construct visual narratives with intention. This study responds to Kress
and van Leeuwen’s (2006) point that ‘adequate ways [for] talking about the visual’ are
needed (p. 34), and it shows value in working with visual elements at the college level
(Avgerinou, 2009; Blummer, 2015). The students in this study select the tools they
need to interpret texts and respond to particular rhetorical situations, practicing habits
that are also key to reading and writing in the world beyond school.
Emanuel and Challons-Lipton (2013) have argued that ‘visual proficiency requires a
visual language … to help express one’s understandings’ (p. 18). While having access
to visual language can help students be more precise in their discussions of visual
texts, art and design elements do not simply serve a descriptive function. They are
also tools for imagining and visualizing, supporting visual thinking (Emanuel &
Challons-Lipton, 2013). After studying camera angles, for example, students realize
that they can bring the camera down low to show a character’s strength or put the
camera up high to show a character’s vulnerability. In addition to providing language
 JOURNAL OF VISUAL LITERACY 77

Table 3. Art and design elements observed in students’ original visual narratives.
Concept Student observations All observations
Example of this code (e.g. artist statements) (e.g. instructor notes)
Medium, Materials, Tools, Process 41 47
‘[coloured] pencil picturebook’
Colour, Brightness, Tones, Saturation 35 86
‘the pastel [colours] I used are calming for a young reader’
Editing, Flashbacks, Sequencing of Cuts 22 38
‘split screen, dancing on car and roof’
Shape 20 21
‘mean characters had plenty of triangles … in their design’
Lighting, Shadows, Silhouettes 13 20
‘interesting lighting achieved with the lamp’
Size, Scale 11 15
‘the smaller the cat is in the frame, the less … powerful’
Camera Angles, Shots 8 35
‘bird’s eye view, we are looking down at two small figures’
Salience 8 8
‘images … [are] enhanced … to bring focus to the subject’
Position 7 19
‘dead center on the page … this … character means business’
Borders, Frames, Surface Dividers, Panels 6 11
‘I created a natural frame with the leaves on the plants’
Humour 6 11
‘the last two pictures are certainly a joke’
Mise en Scene 6 11
‘background, … costumes … all fit with a feudal Japan style’
Contrast 5 7
‘glows a bright white while the background shifts to black’
Line 4 6
‘bold lines in my art to give vitality and energy [to] scenes’
Space 4 6
‘I wanted to show the vastness of … the desert’
Movement, Action 3 20
‘wanted poster … the edges blow in the breeze’
Sound 3 17
‘screen goes black for several seconds, hear gunshots’
Text, Typography 2 18
‘Sob’ [word is wavy like the tears streaming down her face]
Camera Movement 2 4
‘[camera] tracking while kids [are] moving’
Orientation, Page Layout 2 3
‘I added smaller panels … to show a reaction’
Texture 1 4
‘increased the shadow[s] … to enhance the texture of the oats’
Rhythm, Speed 1 3
‘music slows down, and they go back to being bored’
Modality 1 1
‘bold lines … [yield] a low modality’
Stereotypes, Assumptions 1 1
‘I don’t have to say in words that it’s a cute, fluffy cat’
Symbol, Motif 0 7
‘she has a question mark where her face should be’
Relation of Words, Images 0 1
‘She had fun toys’ [illustrations: toy mouse and yarn]

for discussing texts, art and design concepts offer structures for thinking visually. I
believe this is why so many of the art and design elements used in students’ analyses
are also at work in their original visual compositions. Access to visual tools empowers
readers and writers. While visual literacy is influenced by prior knowledge and experi-
ences (Avgerinou & Pettersson, 2011; Brumberger, 2011; Emanuel & Challons-Lipton,
78 W. R. WILLIAMS

2013), acquiring a toolkit of art and design concepts appears to challenge students to
read and compose with intention and imagination.
Past work on visual pedagogies recommends ‘scaffolds to support students’ devel-
opment of visual literacy skills’ (Blummer, 2015, p. 6). Students in this course encoun-
tered readings that discussed art and design elements and experienced activities and
projects focused on recognizing and using these elements. Creative projects provided
students with opportunities to try out concepts for themselves, further reinforcing
their learning.
This research suggests that instructors should consider which elements should be
taught and in what order. It may make sense to start with concepts that are easiest to
grasp before moving to those that will require more time and attention. How students
will engage with visual concepts is another important consideration. In this study, the
students applied concepts to visual narratives and explained the effects of design
choices. Without this component (e.g. explaining the effect of that border on the work
as a whole, explaining how that colour advances the story), applying art and design
elements is no more than a simple identification exercise, a matching game of terms
to examples. Moving students into higher-level thinking involves asking them to
explain how a particular design choice contributes to the larger composition or how it
ultimately advances the story.
In this article, I have defined visual literacy as the ability to interpret and construct
visual messages with an awareness of visual elements (e.g. colour, shape, position)
and forms (e.g. film, comic books, photography), making choices appropriate to the
particular text and context. Students in this study had experiences working with visual
elements and forms and made choices appropriate to particular texts and contexts.
They demonstrated ‘agency and voice’ (Serafini, 2014, p. 52) as they interpreted and
composed visual messages. It is significant that these students selected the texts they
would analyse, and they chose their own characters, storylines, and materials for cre-
ative projects.
These students may carry these ways of seeing into their personal and professional
lives, cropping photos to emphasize a point or selecting a camera angle that suits an
event’s purpose or carefully attending to colour and font when designing a profes-
sional webpage or PowerPoint. Avgerinou (2009) suggests that visual literacy can help
students ‘become independent and flexible learners’ and ‘better comprehend … and
interact with today’s world’ (p. 33). However, more research is necessary to understand
the specific ways visual literacy education impacts students’ personal and profes-
sional lives.

Limitations and future directions

One limitation of this study is that it looks at the work of only six participants. With a
sample size this small, results can be skewed, especially if a participant gravitates
toward a few elements. To correct this, I intend to repeat this study with additional
participants. Because some design elements are specific to certain types of visual nar-
ratives, it would also be useful to separate findings by text type in future work.
 JOURNAL OF VISUAL LITERACY 79

The course was limited in that it focused primarily on art and design elements.
Future courses could cover multiple critical approaches (e.g. critical race theory, femin-
ist theory) alongside art and design elements, since visual literacy involves being able
to employ ‘a variety of theoretical perspectives’ (Serafini, 2014, p. 23). While interpret-
ing and constructing visual narratives with art and design elements in mind does
appear to be useful, I view it as only one step. Rather than serving as an end goal,
these skills can support other ways of critically reading texts.
Emanuel and Challons-Lipton (2013) have noted that research is needed to under-
stand the teaching and learning of visual literacy in undergraduate education. The
Visual Narratives course discussed in this article represents just one possible approach
to teaching visual literacy at the college level; it is by no means a perfect model and
is itself a work in progress. Teaching students to read, interpret, imagine, and con-
struct messages in a changing visual landscape brings opportunities as well
as challenges.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Appendix 1
Visual narratives course outline
Week # Focus Content
1 Videogames Introduce yourself through a visual narrative
Reading the Visual terminology
Examine videogames (e.g. Kings Quest, PlayStation games)
Video of Roberta Williams’s contributions to gaming
2 Videogame presentations
Discuss Graphic Storytelling
3 Picturebooks, Discuss The Arrival and Graphic Storytelling
Comic Books, and Graphic Videos of Shaun Tan’s process
Novels Children’s Literature terminology
Examine picturebooks (e.g. Tuesday, Rosie’s Walk, The Red
Tree, Dogzilla)
4 Picturebook analysis due
Discuss Graphic Storytelling
Examine comics and graphic novels (e.g. American Born Chinese,
Anya’s Ghost, Primates)
Video of Gene Luen Yang on comic books
Special guest: Professional inker of comic books
5 Comic book/graphic novel analysis due
Discuss Graphic Storytelling
6 Photo Essays Picturebook/comic book/graphic novel project due, Share, Write artist
statement
Discuss photography videos (e.g. how-to videos on composition, edit-
ing)
Photography activity on campus
Examine photo essays (e.g. before/after earthquakes, lassoed bandit)
7 TV Shows Photo essay project due, Share, Write artist statement
Discuss The Visual Story
Analyse TV shows (e.g. I Love Lucy, The Prisoner, Monty Python, The
Wire)
Compare TV shows vs. films
8 Film Discuss The Visual Story
Reading in the Dark terminology
Watch Strictly Ballroom with viewing guide
9 Discuss The Visual Story
Watch Once Upon a Time in the West (clips) with viewing guide
(continued)
82 W. R. WILLIAMS

Continued.
Week # Focus Content
10 Animation Film analysis due
Discuss The Visual Story
Analyse animated works (e.g. Steamboat Willie, Pixar Shorts,
Teen Titans)
Animation/claymation studio videos (e.g. Studio Ghibli, Warner
Bros, Aardman)
11 Discuss The Visual Story
Watch My Neighbor Totoro with viewing guide
12 Short Films and Animation analysis due
Videos Discuss The Visual Story
Analyse short films (e.g. A Trip to the Moon, Andalusian Dog,
Waverly Films)
13 Discuss The Visual Story
Analyse vines (e.g. David Lopez), commercials (e.g. what will your
last 10 years look like, rewind the future), and music videos
(e.g. Thriller, I Wanna Rock)
14 Short film/video project due, Share, Write artist statement
Discuss The Visual Story
15 Wrap-up Course reflection due, Share