Communication

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/2017/01/ant.jpg

We human beings are social animals like many other species. All social animals need to communicate with each other. Animals, birds make sounds, gestures or secrete chemicals, use touch to communicate. But we human beings are privileged with much evolved brain. We have created many ways of communication. We use all our five senses of sight, auditory, touch, smell and taste to perceive this world and express ourselves.

We communicate at different levels like personal or social, casual or formal. While communicating we have different goals like sharing feelings, expressing thoughts, informing, educating, entertaining etc. We use tools or mediums like direct talk, video calls, audio calls, mails, presentations, books and many more. When the communication is for commercial activity then major goal is to persuade the target audience.

As I had mentioned earlier that all different actions that we do are influenced by design, so how can the action of ‘Communicating’ be an exception to it! In fact with emerging advanced technologies there are always new possibilities blossoming in the field of communication. Communication design is thus a vast field with enormous opportunities for design. Informal communication doesn’t require any structured effort; it is a natural expression. But in case of commercial communication where the message has to reach across the target audience, it has to be effectively designed. The sales are dependent on this communication. Communication design here is not only about developing messages but also to make sure that it reaches to the audience to make the impact.

Out of our five senses visual and auditory senses are the most explored in communication design. Some people use 'Visual Communication' or 'Graphic design' terms interchangeable with communication design but it is only a part of it.

Use of Social media for communication with masses
Image Source: http://www.indianmarketingreview.com/five-social-cause-
campaigns-went-viral/ 

If we try to list down the imageries that we come across throughout the day which communicate some message to us it would really be a verbose list. Some of these are purely visual while others are audio visual. Some are printed and others are electronic. Imagine your typical day and try to think printed stuff that you see; newspapers, hoardings, posters, brochures, photographs, packages, invitation cards, business cards, books, menu cards, bills, boarding pass or tickets (huh, how much paper we use!)…The list goes on. Same is the case with electronic or digital stuff that we use; mobile applications, presentations, stories, animations, television shows, teleconferencing, emails, websites, entertaining or educating films and videos, performances. Isn’t it a long list? Such is the vast scope of communication design. My general observation is that people assume existence of communication design only as graphic design which is just a tiny part of the whole spectrum. 
Brand and identity design, Packaging design, Illustrations, Concept art, Publication design, Story telling, Animation, Motion graphics, Web design, Human computer interaction, Information architecture, Instructional design, Film and video making, Game design, Photography are all different facets of communication design.    

One more thing I would like to bring to your notice here is that till now I had been talking about various design disciplines that dealt with three dimensional products and spaces; whereas most of the Communication design is about two dimensional images on a surface like paper, wall, screen, fabric. 
I would be taking you through these different streams of communication design in my future posts. Keep reading. Thank you for reading and appreciating!  

Some useful links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFF9i-gOO7w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOy-Q4hhsnc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m626mM5384

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7Znvins46g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6wjC0sxD2o