Did you know that the largest component of the human brain is the visual cortex, responsible for processing visual information? It is no surprise that the mind is programmed to preferentially process visual information rather than text. Reading, it is important to understand, is a skill that is taught and learned, while understanding graphic images is innate. The language of images transcends cultural barriers to become universal.
Going back to the dawn of civilization, human communication was very pictorial. The existence of language emerged recently, 3700 years ago. During this period, the brain has had time to strengthen visual messages, making it process images and colors faster than words. Research suggests that words are processed 60,000 times slower than images.
Research shows that images are also the most engaging type of content, reaching 87% of user interactions on social media. It is no wonder that social networks that focus on visuals, such as Instagram and Pinterest, are so successful.
Why do we love images so much?
We are all born visual and spend a good part of our time thinking visually – our memories, desires, plans, it is common that they are sketched in a visual and non-textual way in our mind – if you still have doubts, know that almost 50% of our brain involves in our visual processing activities and 70% of our sensory receptors are in our eyes.
Our love of images resides in our cognition and ability to pay attention. Images are able to hold our attention easily, we are immediately drawn to them.
Images help us learn, images attract attention, images explain difficult concepts, excite and inspire.
Images help educate
In a world where we are bombarded by stimuli, we often look for the easiest and most fluent way to acquire and learn information. Reading can be a slow and time-consuming activity. It takes much longer to read a long sentence than it does to analyze a visual scene.
At school, we are expected to rummage through our books and memorize sentences word for word. This is not always the best tactic. Many of us are visual learners, who absorb and elaborate content more effectively if it is image-based.
Images help tell a story
Sometimes scientific discoveries, even important ones, just don't feel personal to us as individuals. People may not feel concerned about a particular disease or condition because they are not emotionally involved in it. Now, that's not because we're all stone-hearted monsters. It's because sometimes these discoveries just aren't coming to us the way they should.
Images help us to engage. With images, we are seeing the science rather than staying on the periphery. Images help contribute to the storytelling process that can make any topic more engaging, making identification and connection with the interlocutor closer and deeper.
Images stimulate emotion and subjectivity
Images play a special role in stimulating our emotions. ... They attract the eye and awaken the senses, inducing us to think, abstract and imagine scenarios.
Our affective memory and our creativity have in the visualization and absorption of images a powerful catalyst for the creation and elaboration of abstract ideas.
The use of images in the creation processes
Each person learns, creates, produces, has insights from different stimuli and makes use of different forms of expression. Mental processes are different between people, with each connecting ideas and connecting with each other in different ways.
The use of images creates a common and powerful basis in the process of creation and immersion, in which subjectivity and abstraction are necessary to obtain solutions beyond the surface.
By using images as elements of conversation or stimuli, we can explore the strength that things do not have a single meaning, that they can be interpreted and elaborated in different ways. We can seek to work, stimulate, at the same time, the spontaneity and depth of people's symbolic universe.
Stories is the tool for creating meaningful narratives for brands. Through cards with images and human themes, they encourage the easy generation of narratives with high creative and emotional potential.