Visual metaphors: surprising and memorable anchors of meaning that elevates graphic recording

When I was 7, my parents got divorced. And I remember in that period I saw a picture in a magazine somewhere, that stayed with me all my life by now. I remember that feeling, being astonished of how an image could express much better than words exactly how I felt. This is the image, that I drew it myself from memory because I did not keep the magazine, but my brain retained it perfectly. And it was easy to do so: that’s what visual metaphors do, they stick to your mind like anchors of meaning & feeling. I will never forget the way that the V letter felt, much more than what you actually see in that V. and much ,deeper, beyond the literal sense.

Years after, I learned this is called a visual metaphor- a visual representation that uses symbolic imagery to convey abstract concepts and emotions. It creates a bridge between the known and the unknown, inviting the viewer to engage in abstract thinking and go beyond the literal.

Visual metaphors are largely used in *art, design, *film and photography, *advertising & marketing, *editorial illustration.

Here’s some examples:

Rene Magritte, Blood will Tell- a house and a ball are painted inside a trunk’s tree.

Salvador Dali- time represented as a melting clock, to suggest its fluidity in dreams.

Film

Visual metaphor in ,Wings of desire, movie (1987)

Advertising

Visual metaphor expressing the sound quality by showing a real, miniatural musical instrument, for Nokia advertisement.

Editorial illustration

A visual metaphor on the cover of ,The Economist, magazine, representing the Covid19 virus as an ,overload, that a person carries up a mountain.

Visual Metaphors in Graphic Recording and Facilitation

Making communication more memorable and effective, visual metaphors elevate Graphic Recording too- and this is a part that excites me a lot. I get that sparkle of inspiration and break the predictable with little surprising symbol nuggets, creating a new level of meaning that seems to excite the viewers too. I’ve also discovered visual metaphors are really thought provoking – so great for conversation starters, and it’s what people tend to remember about a graphic recording visual: , ; ,the visual with the racket launching a bonfire, ,the tsunami wave of disruption,; ,transition as a bridge,,:

Impact of visual metaphors in Graphic Recording and Graphic Facilitation

When used in graphic recording, visual metaphors are simplifying the complexity, associating abstract concepts with familiar objects.

Here’s some other examples from my work:

A person digs deeper and ,opens, the curtains of a human mind- maybe his own, and lets the light shine out – graphic recording on the topic of agility, strategy and mindset in business.

A central visual metaphor in a graphic recording about global collaboration- suggesting that a global leader has a global, multicultural mindset.

The environment represented as a snowball in a digital graphic recording about circular economy.

A new, more conscious world is birthed out of our everyday actions in a graphic recording visual about global development goals.

A young person walks on the ,,future,, path in a studio work visual for the Erasmus program.

A ,loving food, fairy rises from a food truck in a graphic recording about food waste in a visual for a conference by Emirates Foundation in Dubai, UAE.

Visual metaphor of a fire gathering evoking primitive times that transcends language and cultural barriers, bridges gaps and fosters cross-cultural communication.