what is visual design?

But here’s my advice. Designers, you don’t have to be dumb. Just don’t be so afraid of being beautiful.

– Michael Beirut of Pentagram

“Do everything by hand, even when using the computer.”
― Hayao Miyazaki

To ask how images work to influence viewers’ beliefs, attitudes, and opinions is ultimately to ask about the very nature of images and about how people respond to them. Conventional wisdom says that representational images tend to prompt emotional reactions and that, once the viewer’s emotions are excited, they tend to override his or her rational faculties, resulting in a response that is unreflective and irrational. Psychological research suggests that this conventional explanation of the rhetorical power of images is broadly accurate in outline, though inadequate for explaining how persuasive images work.

– Charles A. Hill