A picture is worth 1000 words. At first glance most people only see the most obvious aspects of an image. But if one takes a second, third, or fourth glance other aspects can come to light. And at times those aspects are more important than the first ones noticed.

The image posted is an example of graphic web design and how it’s being used to show where education can take a person. While on the Internet looking at blogs I found this image being used by Kanwar R D Singh to ask the question “What skills are needed achieve a person’s goal in life?” His blog can be seen at Windows Live Spaces.

What first come to the eye when looking at this image? The parrot? The bright colors? The young man’s attire? The pink cow? The young man’s attire was what I first saw, but it is most likely that every single person who looks at it will see something different the first time they look at it. How does this graphic design promote education? Personally, the different parts of the image show a number of different occupations that the young man could pursue. The jets to the upper left could be referring to the air force or to working in aerodynamics. The large pink cow and the cow with wings could be associated with careers dealing with agriculture and livestock. How ever the cow on the upper right with a red star could refer to international politics, like relations with the former Soviet Union. The number of colorful flower designs could be a reference to horticulture or landscape architecture. On another inspection of the image the numerous butterflies could represent pursuing a path in art.  While the exotic birds relate to working in the field of zoology or environmental science. The list goes on and on. A person could see how any number of careers could be visualized from this image.

As I said in my “A Helping Hand” post many graphic designs are used to promote products to be sold and that is how graphic web design came into real importance. Normally this image could be seen as a good choice for an advertisement, but Mr. Singh decided to change to how it would be used and how it would be seen, only by asking an unusual question.

Graphic design and graphic web design can be used in so many different ways. It doesn’t just have to used in advertising and in networking, but it can help people think in new ways that they hadn’t thought about before. You can suggest just about anything with just a simple image or a very complex one. And by simply choosing an ususal caption for a specific image the designer can change how the image/design will be looked and thought about. This is another amazing ability that graphic web designer have. They can suggest so subtly, that most people don’t realize it till later, a new perspective of something that wasn’t there before. 

Sources: Kanwar R D Singh Web Blog Personal Planning’s & Goals