C. Comprehension: Understanding and Responding to Texts · Reading Like a Critic: Understanding and Responding to Texts

Images, Graphics and Visual Design in Media Texts

C1.4 A2.4 A2.5About 65 minutes

Learning goals

I can identify visual design choices: composition, colour, typography, white space, layout and hierarchy.
I can explain how camera angle, shot distance, framing and cropping create meaning in images and video.
I can evaluate how images, graphics and design create, communicate and contribute to meaning, and whether they help or mislead.
I can explain how a media text's form, message, audience, purpose and context are connected.

Words to know

visual hierarchy
The order in which a viewer's eye moves through a design, controlled by size, colour, contrast and position.

focal point
The part of an image or design that draws the eye first.

composition
How the parts of an image or design are arranged in the frame.

typography
The style, size, weight and arrangement of lettering.

white space
Empty space around elements, which makes a design easier to read and draws attention to what matters.

camera angle
Where the camera is placed relative to the subject: high, eye level or low.

shot distance
How close the camera is: close-up (face), medium shot (waist up), long shot (whole body and setting).

cropping
Cutting off part of an image, which changes what viewers see and don't see.

call to action
The part of a media text that tells the audience what to do next.

Remember from Grade 8

In Grade 8 you evaluated images, graphs and visual design, including cropping and misleading graph scales. In Grade 9 you'll go further with how professionals design posters, web pages and video, and with the connection between a media text's form, message, audience, purpose and context.

Hook: the three-second test

Most people look at a poster for about the time it takes to walk past it. In that time, the design has to tell you what it is, why you should care and what to do. Every choice of size, colour, picture and placement is a decision about meaning.

The designer's toolkit

Visual hierarchy: the biggest, boldest or brightest element is read first. Designers use this to put the message first.
Focal point and composition: the eye goes to faces, contrast and the centre or the "thirds" lines of a frame. What's placed there is what the design says matters.
Colour: creates mood (cool blues feel calm or cold; warm yellows feel cozy or energetic) and contrast (dark text on a light background is easier to read).
Typography: heavy capitals shout; thin italics whisper. A playful font suits a party flyer, not a safety warning.
White space: empty space isn't wasted. It separates ideas and makes the important parts stand out.
Graphics: icons, maps and charts communicate quickly but can oversimplify or mislead.

Visual hierarchy on an invented library poster. Size, weight and position steer the eye in order, 1 to 4. The design works for a quick glance, but the call to action (4) is the smallest text: an easy improvement would be to make it bigger.

Worked example

Let's evaluate a poster's design

Evaluate the invented Winter Reading Challenge poster above. How do its images, graphics and design create and communicate meaning? Is it effective for its audience (teens aged 12 to 18) and purpose (getting sign-ups)?

Hierarchy: READ THE WINTER AWAY is the largest and boldest. It delivers the message first and uses a playful twist on pass the winter away.
Image: a reader with a lantern inside a snow fort is the focal point. It connects reading with cozy fun in a season teens know well, and it shows a young reader, so the audience can picture themselves.
Colour: cool blue background (winter) with warm yellow highlights (lantern light, warmth). The contrast suggests reading is warmth inside the cold.
Details (Ages 12 to 18, Jan. to March) are mid-sized, easy to find second.
Weakness: the call to action (Sign up at the front desk) is the smallest text, but it's what the library needs people to do. Also, there's no web sign-up option, which teens may prefer.
Overall: effective at attracting attention and creating a mood; weaker at converting viewers into sign-ups. Improve by enlarging the call to action and adding a short web address or QR code.

The design creates mood (cozy winter reading), communicates the message quickly through hierarchy, and suits teens with a relatable image, but it undersells the call to action. Evaluating means naming strengths, weaknesses and improvements.

Images and video: the camera is never neutral

Whoever holds the camera makes choices that shape meaning:

Camera angle: high, eye level or low (see below).
Shot distance: a close-up shows emotion; a long shot shows a person in their setting (small in a big world, or part of a community).
Framing and cropping: what's inside the frame is what viewers think happened. Cropping out a crowd can make a protest look small; cropping out the empty seats can make an event look packed.
Editing and sound (in video): fast cuts create excitement; slow music creates sadness; silence creates tension.

Three camera angles on the same person. The dashed line shows the camera's view. Where the camera is placed changes how powerful or vulnerable the subject seems, even though nothing about the person has changed.

Form, message, audience, purpose and context are connected

A media text's parts depend on each other. Change one, and the others shift:

Form: poster, 15-second video, podcast, web page.
Message: the main idea.
Audience: who it's for.
Purpose: inform, persuade, entertain, sell.
Context: where and when people meet it (a bus shelter in January; a phone feed at midnight).

A reading challenge advertised as a 15-second vertical video for teens' phones would need fast cuts, captions (many people watch with the sound off), and the message in the first two seconds, because the context is a scrolling feed.

Worked example

Let's analyze a public-service video storyboard

An invented 20-second video for a town's anti-idling campaign has three shots: (1) close-up of a car's tailpipe puffing exhaust beside a school; (2) low-angle shot from child height, looking up past children walking to the school door; (3) eye-level shot of a parent turning off the engine and smiling. Text on screen: Kids breathe at your tailpipe's height. Turn it off. Evaluate how the visuals create meaning.

Shot 1, close-up: forces viewers to look at what they normally ignore. Placed beside a school (context) to link exhaust to children.
Shot 2, low angle: the camera is placed low, at child height, looking up, so we see the world as children do. It supports the on-screen text about tailpipe height.
Shot 3, eye level: the parent is shown as an equal, not a villain. This invites the audience to identify with the parent and copy the action.
Text + image: the text states a fact the images make felt. The call to action (Turn it off) is short and clear.
Audience and purpose: aimed at parents in a pickup line, to persuade. The friendly last shot avoids blaming, which makes people more likely to change.

Camera distance, angle and order move viewers from noticing (close-up) to empathy (child-height view) to identification (eye-level parent). The design is effective because it persuades without shaming its audience.

Just for fun

Funny-but-true: the font Comic Sans was designed in 1994 for the speech bubbles of a cartoon dog in a Microsoft program (it was finished too late to appear there, and showed up in other programs instead). Every design choice has a purpose, even if the purpose is a talking dog.

Hands-on activity

Design detective and redesign

You need: two pieces of print media from home or your community (a flyer, a cereal box, a magazine ad, a takeout menu, a poster on a community bulletin board), paper, coloured pencils or markers, a ruler.

For each one, number the elements 1, 2, 3, 4 in the order your eye reads them. Ask someone else at home to do the same without seeing yours. Do you agree?
Name the audience, purpose and call to action.
Rate the design 1 to 5 for clarity and 1 to 5 for appeal, with a reason for each.
Redesign one of them on paper: keep the same words, but change size, position, colour and white space to make the call to action stronger.
Optional, with a grown-up's permission: take three photos of the same object (a houseplant, a pet, a mug) from a high, eye-level and low angle. Which looks most important?

What to look for: a clear reading order, ratings with reasons, and a redesign whose changes are explained (for example, I moved the phone number to the top-right corner and made it twice as big because that's what the restaurant wants people to do).

Your turn

What is the focal point of the reading poster, and why does it suit the audience?

Why is READ THE WINTER AWAY the largest text?

Name one weakness in the poster and suggest an improvement.

What effect does a low camera angle usually have on how a subject appears?

Why does shot 2 of the anti-idling video use a low angle at child height?

How can cropping change the meaning of a news photo? Give an example.

Why would a 15-second video version of the reading challenge need captions?

More practice: warm-up

What is white space?

Which shot shows a face to reveal emotion: close-up or long shot?

What does a call to action do?

Name two tools designers use to create visual hierarchy.

Which camera angle is the most neutral?

More practice: on your own

A safety warning sign uses a curly, playful font. Evaluate this choice.

A news site shows a politician in a high-angle photo for a story about a scandal. How might this shape readers' opinions?

How does the context of a bus shelter in January affect a poster's design?

Why might a long shot of a person alone in a snowy field create a feeling of loneliness?

Explain how changing the form of a message from a poster to a podcast would change the design choices.

Challenge

Choose a real ad or poster you've seen. Evaluate how its images, graphics and design contribute to meaning, and whether they could mislead the audience.

Plan a three-shot storyboard for a 15-second video encouraging teens to try a local skating trail. For each shot, give the angle, distance and purpose.

Explain how form, message, audience, purpose and context connect in the anti-idling campaign. What would change if the audience were children instead of parents?

Check your understanding

Quiz

The element of a design that viewers see first is usually the one with the greatest...

A low-angle shot usually makes a subject look...

Which is the call to action on the reading poster?

Why might a designer use lots of white space?

Cropping a photo can mislead because it...

A video for a scrolling phone feed should put its main message...

For parents and teachers

What this lesson teaches: Grade 9 students evaluate how images, graphics and visual design create, communicate and contribute to meaning in a variety of texts (C1.4). They evaluate forms and techniques of media texts and their effect on audiences (A2.4), and explain how form, message, audience, purpose and context are connected (A2.5).

How to help at home:

In the grocery store, ask: "Why is that cereal box at your eye level? What's the first thing you see on it?"
During a movie, point out a low or high camera angle and ask what it makes you feel.
Look at flyers that arrive at home and rank them for clarity.

Common difficulties:

Describing instead of evaluating. "It's blue" needs "...which makes it feel calm, which suits/doesn't suit its purpose because...".
Forgetting the audience. A design can be great for one audience and poor for another.
Assuming photos are neutral. Every photo is a choice of angle, distance and crop.

Facts used: Comic Sans was designed by Vincent Connare at Microsoft in 1994, inspired by comic-book lettering, for a cartoon dog's speech bubbles in the program Microsoft Bob; it was finished too late for Bob and first appeared in other Microsoft software. The poster, library and video storyboard are invented examples.