Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design / Edition 2

by Gunther Kress, Theo van Leeuwen

Overview

Reading Images provides a systematic and comprehensive account of the grammar of visual design. Drawing on an enormous range of examples--children's drawings, textbook illustrations, photojournalism, advertising images and fine art, as well as three-dimensional

forms--the authors demonstrate the differences and the similarities between the grammar of language and that of visual culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415319157
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/14/2006
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.75(w) x 9.75(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Gunther Kress was Professor of English and Head of the School of Culture, Language and Communication at the UCL Institute of Education, UK. His many ground-breaking publications include Language as Ideology (with Bob Hodge); Social Semiotics (with Bob Hodge); Early Spelling; Learning to Write; Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication and Multimodality, Learning and Communication (with Jeff Bezemer).

Theo van Leeuwen is currently Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Southern Denmark and Honorary Professor at the University of New South Wales, Australia. His many influential publications include Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication (with Gunther Kress); Speech, Music, Sound; Introducing Social Semiotics and Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis.

Table of Contents

Introduction Chapter One: The Semiotic Landscape Chapter Two: Narrative Representations: Designing Social Action Chapter Three: Conceptual Representations: Designing Social Constructs Chapter Four: Representation and Interaction: Designing the Position of the Viewer Chapter

Five: Morality: Designing Models of Reality Chapter Six: The Meaning of Composition Chapter Seven: The Materiality of Meaning - Surface and Inscription Chapter Eight: The Third Dimension

Editorial Reviews

'Reading Images has taught us how to look at and interpret images made over thousands of years. In this masterfully revised and expanded edition, Kress and van Leeuwen are doing it again, bringing us right back to the digital age. Their social semiotic theory has just become even more appealing and authoritative.'

Adam Jaworski, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

'If images have gradually become central in communication, we have to discuss ways to read them. This book is not about rules, or right vs wrong; instead, it provides us the opportunity to reflect on images and processes of meaning-making. That is why this book is a ‘must read’ for anyone interested in visual communication.'

Clarice Gualberto, UFMG, Brazil

Praise for the first edition:

'Reading Images is the most important book in visual communication since Jacques Bertin's Semiology of Information Graphics. It is both thorough and thought-provoking; a remarkable breakthrough.'

Kevin G. Barnhurst, Syracuse University, USA

From the Publisher