{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,2]],"date-time":"2025-08-02T17:57:35Z","timestamp":1754157455536,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":18,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"9\/10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2007,10,23]],"date-time":"2007-10-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1193097600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2007,10,23]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>The paper seeks to serve a dual process, first, to raise awareness of the epistemological weaknesses inherent in the ways that visual communications designers address their own practice, and, second, to suggest that cybernetics has some of the answers to these weaknesses.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>These objectives of this paper have been addressed through an examination of the cybernetics, critical theory and visual design theory. A comparison of the points of convergence (often of aims) and those points of divergence (often in its ontological reading of the world) is illuminating, especially when post\u2010structuralist semiotics \u2013 as a system of knowledge exterior to both design and cybernetics, yet capable of commenting on both \u2013 is used as a point of triangulation.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>The literature analysis carried for this paper indicates that in both visual communications design and cybernetics there are areas of overlapping interest (concerns with the cyclic nature of coding and decoding information) and areas that might at first seem divergent but are in fact often complementary (the role of the observer as controller and participant in a system). The paper proposes that cybernetics uncovers principles at the heart of communication that in turn inform visual communication practices, which in a circular fashion informs cybernetics.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Practical implications<\/jats:title><jats:p>The paper suggests that new areas for cyberneticians to use in their study of second\u2010order cybernetics may be found in the product of visual communications design. It also suggests areas where designers may begin to search for tools that may be useful in evaluating their working practices.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>The paper notes that an external investigation of visual communications artefacts presents cybernetics with a potential test\u2010bed on which to test its theories, in practice, on a global scale. Cybernetics has the potential to define and offer constructive guidance to visual communications design in examining its own practice.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/03684920710827300","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2007,11,24]],"date-time":"2007-11-24T07:01:05Z","timestamp":1195887665000},"page":"1286-1300","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["It's all about communication: graphics and cybernetics"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"36","author":[{"given":"Simon","family":"Downs","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b1","unstructured":"Barthes, R. (1977), \u201cThe death of the author\u201d, in Heath, S. (Ed.), Image, Music, Text, Hill & Wang, New York, NY, pp. 142\u20109."},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b2","unstructured":"Cohen, J. (1971), \u201cCreativity, technology and the arts\u201d, in Jasia, R. (Ed.), Cybernetics, Art & Ideas, Studio Vista Ltd, London, pp. 24\u201040."},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Corning, P.A. (2002), \u201cThe re\u2010emergence of \u2018Emergence: a venerable concept in search of a theory\u2019\u201d, Complexity, Vol. 7 No. 6, pp. 18\u201030.","DOI":"10.1002\/cplx.10043"},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b4","unstructured":"Crowley, D. and Jobling, P. (1997), Graphic Design: Reproduction and Representation Since 1800 \u2013 Studies in Design and Material Culture, Manchester University Press, Manchester."},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b5","unstructured":"De Lange, R.W., Esterhuizen, H.L. and Beatty, D. (1993), \u201cPerformance differences between times and helvetica in a reading task\u201d, Electronic Publishing, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 241\u20108."},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b6","unstructured":"Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (2004), A Thousand Plateaus, Continuum Publishing Company, London."},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b18","unstructured":"Jobling, P. and Crowley, D. (1996), Graphic Design: Reproduction and Representation Since 1800, Manchester University Press, Manchester."},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b7","unstructured":"Kalman, T. (1991), \u201cGood history, bad history\u201d, in Beirut, M. (Ed.), Looking Closer 1: Critical Writings in Graphic Design, Alltworth Press and American Institute of Graphic Arts, New York, NY, pp. 25\u201033, Bad History, design review, reprinted as: Kalman, T., Miller, J.A., Jacobs, K. (1994). \u201cGood history\/bad history\u201d."},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Krippendorff, K. (1969), \u201cValues, modes and domains of inquiry into communication\u201d, The Journal of Communications, Vol. 19, pp. 105\u201033.","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1460-2466.1969.tb00835.x"},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b9","unstructured":"Krippendorff, K. (2006), The Semantic Turn, CRC Press\/Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL\/New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b10","unstructured":"Lupton, E. (2000), \u201cVisual syntax\u201d, in Swanson, G. (Ed.), Graphic Design & Reading, pp. 73\u20107."},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b11","unstructured":"Oren, T. (1990), \u201cDesigning a new medium\u201d, in Laurel, B. (Ed.), The Art of Human\u2010Computer Interface Design, Apple Computers Inc.\/Addison\u2010Wesley Group, London, pp. 467\u201081."},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b12","unstructured":"Rand, P. (1985), A Designer's Art, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT."},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b13","unstructured":"Rehe, R.F. (2000), \u201cLegibility, graphic design & reading\u201d, in Swanson, G. (Ed.), Allworth Press, New York, NY, pp. 97\u2010111."},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b14","unstructured":"Russett, M. (2003), \u201cKnowledge, K is for knowledge\u201d, in Wolfreys, J. (Ed.), Glossolalia \u2013 An Alphabet of Critical Keywords, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 169\u201079."},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Shannon, C.E. (1948), \u201cA mathematical theory of communication\u201d, The Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 27, pp. 379\u2010423.","DOI":"10.1002\/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x"},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b16","unstructured":"von Foerster, H. (1995), \u201cEthics and second\u2010order cybernetics\u201d, Stanford Humanities Review, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 308\u201019."},{"key":"key2022020520243636300_b17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ware, C. (2003), \u201cDesign as applied perception\u201d, in Carroll, J.M. (Ed.), HCI Models, Theories, and Frameworks, Elsevier Science\/Morgan Kauffman, Burlington, MA, pp. 10\u201026.","DOI":"10.1016\/B978-155860808-5\/50002-2"}],"container-title":["Kybernetes"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emeraldinsight.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1108\/03684920710827300","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/03684920710827300\/full\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/03684920710827300\/full\/html","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,24]],"date-time":"2025-07-24T23:53:03Z","timestamp":1753401183000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emerald.com\/k\/article\/36\/9-10\/1286-1300\/264977"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Ranulph","family":"Glanville","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2007,10,23]]},"references-count":18,"journal-issue":{"issue":"9\/10","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2007,10,23]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1108\/03684920710827300"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/03684920710827300","relation":{},"ISSN":["0368-492X"],"issn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"0368-492X"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2007,10,23]]}}}