Last week, a bit of controversy ensued when a prominent Asian-American church leader took issue with the marketing and branding of the book Deadly Viper Character Assassins and its website. (DJ Chuang offers an excellent debrief here.)
The incident reminded me of the time a friend of mine went to eat dinner with his grandparents. My friend was wearing a hat, which happened to be olive green and happened to feature a red star on the front. To my friend, it was just a hat; the star was just a star. To his grandfather, however, the olive green held a strong military association and the red star was the universal symbol for communism. To my friend, it was a hat. To his grandfather, it invoked old feelings of anger and patriotism, as well as thoughts of oppression, death, and war.
My point in all of this, whatever side you might fall on in either of these disagreements, is that images aren’t necessarily neutral. People from different cultures and contexts may respond very differently to the same pictures, colors, or metaphors — whether it’s a red star, a Chinese character, or something else. You, the designer of a piece, may think that certain imagery is neutral, that you can adapt it for your purposes and infuse with whatever meaning you’d like. Just know that this isn’t always the case.
Imagery has the power to elicit strong emotions in its viewers, but at times it may surprise you which emotions or associations surface. When you create visuals for an audience, do your best to enter the culture or context of the viewer (or invite the feedback of someone who’s already there). Hopefully, your communication efforts will be better for it.
