I was pondering recently about ‘the art of communication’ and in my occasionally very literal way of thinking I decided to run with it for a while – so here goes…
The artist has a message to portray and the audience interprets that message – but how often do the expressed message and the received message agree?
Constable knew how to paint a countryside scene, and LS Lowry could skip the finer detail and still get his message across (as immortalised in Brian and Michael’s 1978 No 1 ‘hit’). Botticelli had an eye for detail (nipples mostly) and Michelangelo beats Artex any day of the week. I worry about the physiological integrity of Salvador Dali’s elephants but I can see that he knew how to drive a paintbrush. I can’t, however, see the attraction of having half a dead, cartilaginous fish in my lounge (sorry Damien) and firmly believe that Carl Andre missed the opportunity for a built in barbeque by just piling his bricks in the Tate.
As you can see, I’m no expert but I do believe that I’m pretty average in my thinking here. If communication is art, there’s a lesson here for us all.
A message delivered is not necessarily a message received. By the same token, a message received is not necessarily a message understood…and a message that no-one understands is no message at all!
Now time for you to ponder…how does your corporate presentation measure up in terms of delivering a message? Perhaps more importantly – how do you know?
Tags: Communication, Design, Eyeful Presentations, Infographics, Message, PowerPoint, PowerPoint Design, Presentation Optimisation, Presentations, Storytelling
