Knowing the basics of visual communication design isn’t just important for designers. Today’s brands must produce high-quality content that does double duty — delivering accurate information in a compelling way — in order to build trust with increasingly skeptical audiences. And that means that marketers and communications professionals need to be able to recognize quality design when they see it, so they can develop content that meets the highest standards.
A new book from Killer Visual Strategies CEO and founder Amy Balliett is designed for marketers, communications pros, brand leaders, and designers alike. The goal? To empower them with the tools to produce great visual communication content in any industry, for any audience.
The book, titled Killer Visual Strategies: Engage Any Audience, Improve Comprehension, and Get Amazing Results Using Visual Communication, is being published by Wiley and will be released on June 30. But you can preorder the book today.
This new release is the only comprehensive guide to visual communication design for marketing and comms audiences as well as for designers. Let’s take a look at what you can expect to learn from it.
The History and Science of Visual Communication
Killer Visual Strategies aims to be a resource on all things visual communication — and that starts tens of thousands of years ago, with the first cave paintings. Humans have been communicating visually since our earliest recorded history, which is why visual content is still so compelling to us today.
In these pages, you’ll find an illustrated timeline of some of the most important landmarks in visual communication history. This will ground you in the fundamentals and give you a sense of the full scope of the possibilities when it comes to visual storytelling.
You’ll also learn about the science behind how the brain interacts with visual information. This way, you won’t just understand the unique power of this kind of content — you’ll understand how to harness it for your next project.
The 8 Rules of Visual Communication Design
The next step is learning best practices and common mistakes when it comes to visual communication design. That way you can apply what you’ve learned to real-world scenarios, and walk away equipped to develop content that’s not only informative, but designed to achieve your goals.
In the second part of the book, Amy explains the 8 rules of visual communication design. You’ll learn how to accurately visualize data, minimize text, use colors and fonts strategically, and develop custom visuals. You’ll also learn when it’s time to break these rules.
Curious what visual communication can do for you?
Project Management for Creative Content
Managing the development of creative content requires a unique process, involving organized and constructive feedback at key stages as well as key documents such as a creative brief and a wireframe. If you’re unfamiliar with this process, you may have trouble communicating what you really need to your creative partner.
So Amy has also outlined the fundamentals of creative project management, step by step. The goal is to empower you to work with a visual communication agency or an internal team to develop the most effective content for your goals.
Visual content simply isn’t optional for brands. You need to understand the basics — and then some — in order for your internal and marketing communications to thrive. That’s why this book is for you. So learn all of the above — and much more — from Killer Visual Strategies, the first book from Killer’s CEO and founder.
