Introduction meeting the challenge of teaching visual communication

The driving force behind Designing Texts is the understanding that our students must be visually literate if they are to succeed in their professional careers as well as in their roles as critically aware participants in society. They must understand visual communication, and they must have some level of skill not only in interpreting it, but also in creating it. As Keith Kenney (2009), founding editor of Visual Communication Quarterly, notes, “If you work in business, you need visuals to help sell your products. If you work in anthropology, biology, chemistry, economics, or education, you also need to communicate visually. I could continue listing professions, but you get the point” (p. xv). Kenney continues by arguing that, if visual communication is increasingly prevalent in the workplace and in society more broadly, it should also be more prevalent in the university curriculum.