Business Courses/Storytelling for DesignersCourse
InstructorYuanxin (Amy) Yang AlcocerShow bio
Amy has a master's degree in secondary education and has been teaching math for over 9 years. Amy has worked with students at all levels from those with special needs to those that are gifted.
In this lesson, you'll learn about indexical images and how you can use them to evoke emotions from your audience without having to say things too literally.
Table of Contents
- Indexical Images
- Using Indexical Images
- Design Elements to Use
- Example
- Lesson Summary
Picture a commercial of a young child receiving an ice cream cone. He jumps up and down excitedly, and the ice cream falls out of the cone and onto the floor. At this point, the sound stops and you no longer see the child. You only see the ice cream on the floor beginning to melt. How do you feel? This is an example of an indexical image, or an image that represents a meaning without having to specifically say it. These types of images are a great way to evoke certain emotions in your visual storytelling. If you can evoke emotions without having to literally say it, then the emotions will be more powerful.
For example, instead of seeing that ice cream fall onto the ground and start melting, would you feel the same level of sadness and empathy for the child if you saw the child crying? You still might feel sad, but now that sadness is also tinged with stress. Hearing children crying is always stressful. Nobody likes it. It is true that whatever the child is crying about is sad, but seeing and hearing them cry takes away from the sadness of the moment. Using the indexical image, however, allows you to evoke the feeling of sadness without other distractors.
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Other examples of indexical images include:
- A thermometer showing how hot or cold it is.
- Cute playful kittens and puppies to represent happiness.
- Images of people in 80s outfits to evoke feelings of nostalgia.
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In order to use indexical images to your advantage, think of what meanings you want to represent and what emotions you want to evoke. Do you want to represent a place that evokes feelings of peace and calm for a hotel commercial in a foreign destination? Or do you want to evoke feelings of fear for a commercial about safety equipment?
Once you've figured out your emotions and meanings, you can then think about what types of indexical images will show those emotions and meanings. For a place that evokes feelings of peace and calm for the hotel commercial, a nicely arranged spa room will work, as will a clean, bright lounge area around a pool. For a feeling of fear for the safety equipment commercial, you can show a burglar unlocking a locked door. In both of these situations, you aren't mentioning any of the emotions directly; you are using an image or visual to represent another meaning in order to evoke certain emotions.
Once you've figured out what images and visuals you want to work with, you are then ready to add design elements to make your meanings and emotions that much more pronounced.
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Color, texture, and space in indexical images will emphasize your meaning and emotions. Using the right color palette is important, as certain colors evoke certain feelings. A peaceful poolside scene can be made dreary and sad-looking if the color palette contains beiges and dull greens. But a color palette that's fresh with bright and soft, clear blues makes the scene that much more clean, serene, and peaceful.
It's also important to consider texture. In order to evoke feelings of fear, use harsh textures to make that feeling of fear seem more intense. Dark colors also will add to that feeling.
As you use your visuals, also think about your space. Having too many visuals can interfere with your intended message, so keep your space focused on the meanings and emotions that you want to convey.
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Let's take a peek at what Emily is working on. Emily is creating a visual story for a local cupcake shop. Her visual story is a television commercial about how delicious and unique the cupcakes are from this shop. Emily has been thinking about this project for a while, and she's decided she wants it to convey that cupcakes are delicious and they make people happy. People also feel love when they share them with friends and family. This is the story she wants to tell.
The images she begins to put together to make this happen include:
- People eating the cupcakes and savoring them.
- Families enjoying their time together while eating the cupcakes.
- Friends visiting each other with the cupcakes and everybody joyfully greets each other.
- Cute cupcakes on a nice display with the name of the bakery behind them.
As she includes these visuals in her commercial, Emily also uses the right colors for each scene. Emily uses reds and yellows for the scene that shows people eating the cupcakes, because these are appetizing colors. For the family and friends scene, she uses bright happy colors to show happiness and love. For the cute cupcakes on display, she again uses her reds and yellows but also adds in some pops of color to show the uniqueness and tastiness of the cupcakes.
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An indexical image is an image that represents a meaning without having to specifically say it. When using indexical images, first think of the meanings and emotions that you want your audience to think of and to feel. Then, choose visuals that represent those meanings and emotions.
Add in your design elements to match your meanings and emotions. Use colors and texture that match. It's also important to consider space so that you don't have too many visuals obscuring your meaning and emotions.
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