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Commercial Images

Commercial images, visuals designed to attract viewers and generate income, appear on billboards that loom above you as you are driving along the highway.  They appear on the cup you’re holding from the fast-food drive-thru, and they flash before your eyes as you’re watching an advertisement on television.  You even see commercial images subtly embedded within the movies and TV shows you view for entertainment.

These visuals use a variety of techniques to grab and hold the audience’s attention.  They are designed to be emotionally moving and memorable so that consumers will remember those powerful images long after they have seen them and spend their money on a particular product or service.  Pay close attention to how many commercial images you encounter in a given day;  the number might surprise you!

Artistic Images

The selfies our friends post on Tumblr and Instagram, the graffiti that flashes by us on the railway cars, the sculpture outside of a high-rise building, the stained glass windows in a cathedral, even a child’s simple drawing—these are all images designed for personal or artistic expression.  

Artistic images enable artists to communicate who they are to the world, what they stand for, or what they find beautiful or interesting.  Archeologists have even found evidence that the inhabitants of the Stone Age created art in the form of petroglyphs on cave walls.  Humans seem to have a deeply-ingrained need to express themselves. 

Sometimes the lines between artistic and commercial images are blurry—artists sometimes create works to make money, and commercial artists (designers) sometimes create works regarded as art.  However, both types of images use a number of techniques that influence the audience to think and feel in certain ways.