A thousand words, a thousand ships

Author: Look at this book. Full of text. Hard to read. It needs illustrations.

Artist: Don’t you think sticking pictures in a book is dumbing down the message? Juvenalizing your readers?

Author: Information is sometimes so complicated it helps to get it across visually. Can you teach someone how to fold an origami shape or fly a plane by words alone?

Artist: Hard. So show it?

Author: And tell it too. Need both. Mixed media, multi-channel, multiple intelligence approach. For clarity, talk is good, print is better and print plus graphic is best.

Artist: Pictures worth a thousand words?

Author: Like the face that launched a thousand ships? That’s not a universal truth. Depends on the picture. And sometimes the boot is on the other foot. Some words may take a lot of pictures to explain. The word Syriana needs a whole movie to say what it means.

Artist: So case by case?

Author: Horses for courses.
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