Chapter 2: Honesty of Ideas in Cartoons The cartoon, a medium which is often dismissed as embodying childish naivete, may be appropriated as a sophisticated tool for the expression of ideas – critical to the aims of visual design in communication. Although easily overlooked for its lack of complexity as an artform, the merits of the cartoon lies in its capacity for abstraction. Its simplicity results in a capacity to reach a greater audience, allowing for the viewer to imbue subjective meaning to cartoons. McCloud states that the cartoon is a form of “amplification through simplification.” In other words, cartoons accentuate the crucial points of ideas and filter out any noisy details which may cause confusion. There is therefore no doubt as to why children, with the nebulous nature of their identities, are drawn to cartoons, a medium which may be the most truthful to the expression of ideas.

Chapter 5: Manifesting the Invisible with the Visual The abundance of information which may be communicated through sight broadens visual design as means of conveying information to all five senses. McCloud introduces the advent of expressionism as a style which more honestly reflected subjective human experience as a precursor to the use of pictures to evoke the invisible with the visible. Lines, one of the most simple visual elements, can critically define the meaning of the drawing either by conveying mood through its texture or sensory information based on its context (e.g. lines for smelliness).