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"no one had presented a visual language in such a way that readers could actually envision what it would look like. Until now."
While several scholars and practitioners have spoken of a visual language (i.e., Kostelnick and Roberts; Tufte), no one had presented a visual language in such a way that readers could actually envision what it would look like. Until now. In his recent book, which some are calling a landmark text, Robert E. Horn does more than talk about integrating the verbal and the visual, he accomplishes the integration fully and uses the visual language he describes as the language of choice in the text.

--JAMES M. DUBINSKY, Technical Communication Quarterly, Summer 2000.
See full review.

"playful & scholarly, innovative & practical, insightful & comprehensive, informative & provocative, historical, forward-looking"
Robert Horn is the Samuel Johnson and the William Shakespeare of visual literacy. He teaches us the rhetoric, grammar, and syntax and then gives us example upon example of visual wisdom. I felt like a child learning a new language; eager for every fresh term, charmed by each surprising relationship ... The literati and digerati are now joined by the visulati--visual language thinkers who have mastered the principles of visual literacy ... Playful & scholarly, innovative & practical, insightful & comprehensive, informative & provocative, historical & forward-looking--I give Horn's book on Visual Language five twinkling red-yellow-green-blue-purple stars.

BEN SHNEIDERMAN, Professor of Computer Science, and Head of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab, University of Maryland, from College Park, MD, Dr. Shneiderman is the author of Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction ( third edition 1998). Reviewed at --<www.amazon.com>, December 13, 1999

"goes a critical step beyond Edward Tufte"
"This book is primarily about the arising of meaning in visual language; as such it goes a critical step beyond Edward Tufte's trilogy of books...Visually stunning, delightful and intellectually stimulating, Horn has changed and elaborated my understanding of the meaning and uses of visual language. The integrated use of text and symbol speeds understanding and increases the impact of communciation. There has not been such a complete discussion of the subject before. Visual Language is a landmark book."

--DAVID JOHNSON, Collection Development Librarian, Oregon State University Reviewed at <barnesandnoble.com>

"a book to keep close at hand!"
A ground-breaking new book by Robert Horn discusses/illustrates the power of visual language that combines words and images in new ways and has its own systems of syntax and semantics. It has long been understood that when people see images at the same time as they hear or read information understanding and retention escalate, but the visual language Horn describes goes even further as it facilitates more effective communication and learning not only in the field of education, but also in business, science, and technology. As our world becomes increasingly complex, Horn believes that visual language will lead to a revolution as transformative as Gutenberg's.

Horn claims that visual language is already a global language and that it will rapidly become an international auxiliary language (IAL) in the 21st century. (An IAL is a language that is used in addition to our native languages.) Visual language is certainly already aiding communication across cultures, especially here on the Web.

It is difficult to discuss this book in conventional language after having read/seen it. There is no doubt that speakers, teachers, students, and others who depend on effective communication will rethink how they can improve their skills through this powerful new medium. Horn suggests that visual language "will encourage more complex ways of considering problems, evolve a new aesthetic and genre in the visual arts, contribute to the rise of a more integral culture, provide frameworks for interethnic and intercultural understanding, facilitate the reintegration of science and art, contribute to the wider and better understanding of complex environmental issues, be a foundation for a new international literature, express more clearly the contemporary meaning of life in the cosmos, and help the survival of democracy by enabling voters to understand complex issues."

It may also help us process the escalating masses of information that emerge daily in our lives. For anyone who strives to communicate effectively, Visual Language will open new possibilities and is a book to keep close at hand!

--New Horizons Online Journal <http://www.newhorizons.org/review_horn.html>

"a great source of inspiration"
"If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Robert Horn's Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century is a valuable book both in style and content. Written in the "visual language" it describes, the book reads like a very dense graphic novel--it's full of ideas for your next design project ... and many beyond. While not written specifically for the web design audience, much of the information will be of value to developers of web sites that use graphical elements to enhance text.

Horn theorizes that a new "visual language" is developing with its own syntax and semantics, and the book gives a historical overview of this development as well as an academic (although accessible) argument for the theory. While this argument is intriguing in itself, it does get a bit scholarly in spots. Most web designers will be interested in the later chapters, which are more practical. Here Horn gives examples to support his theories, and explores the "semantics of content."

Rich with visual examples, this book is a great source of inspiration to those interested in getting their messages across more effectively."

--TERRIE SCHWEITZER, webreview.com <http://www.webreview.com/pub/1999/12/24/review/index.html>

"incredibly useful"
" ... this is a wonderful opening for a dialog among those who define themselves as information designers and technical communicators. It is incredibly useful for those of us who daily incorporate visual elements into technical communication."

--BETH CONNEY LISBERG, Technical Communication; Journal of the Society for Technical Communication, Fourth Quarter, 1999

"you will have to learn visual language"
"What is the place of comics in the larger scheme of things? Are comics part of publishing or part of entertainment? What do we see when regarding them as an art or as an industry? The mental models we use to answer such questions can mean the difference between business opportunities lost and opportunities found. Robert E. Horn proposes that comics are an important dialect of visual language, which he promotes as one of our most powerful methods of communication. In his book, Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century, Horn claims that "full integration of words, images, and shapes into a single, unified communication unit is just now emerging as a distinct language." Cartoonists, in this view, are not diehards in a dwindling industry or outsider artists, but people with valuable communication skills, surfing a rising wave of the future. Other converging threads in addition to "comic books" that make up "visual language" include group process facilitation graphics, scientific visualization, storyboards, quantitative charts and graphs, diagrams of all kinds, presentation visuals, maps, and many others. Horn sets out an ambitious program to formalize the largely unexplored history, linguistics, syntax, semantics and pragmatics of this new, hybrid way of communicating. Accepting this family tree that Horn has sketched is like discovering that we have a lot of rich (but strait-laced) cousins.

Horn's "Visual Language" uses visual language to make its case. It proves by example that illustrations can partially compensate for weaknesses in the words at the same time as words are partially compensating for weaknesses in the illustrations.

Personally, I am most impressed by Horn's visionary speculation about "information landscapes," the usefulness of his possibility that he brings to this subject. Horn is also doing exciting work in the visual mapping of ideas (unfortunately, this book includes no examples of this recent work.) In his conclusion, Horn briefly supplements his promotion of visual language's attractive possibilities with a neo-Darwinian warning: "Some observers have noted that a competitive attention economy has emerged in which thousands of messages compete daily for our attention. But readers have a fixed amount of attention, and the most effective and attractive messages will capture most of it. For this reason alone, you will have to learn visual language."

--LEONARD RIFAS, Comics Journal

"important for everyone who seeks to be computationally literate"
"Given the ubiquitous nature of the personal computer, this volume is important for everyone who seeks to be computationally literate."

--FRANK NUESSEL, Language Problems and Language Planning 23 (3) 2000: 299-301.

"readers are likely to keep retrieving from the bookshelf"
"Much careful thought has gone into the content of this book and its presentation, and it is highly recommended to all who are interested in improving the quality of multimedia materials. It provides a challenge both in its content and in the nature of its claims ... Having completed the reading [Visual Language] can be used as a more specific reference--for example, in dealing with design issues such as the vocabulary of space, the semantics of diagrams, the expression of emotion, representations of time and motion, presenting multiple viewpoints and creative problem-solving. In brief, it is a publication many readers are likely to keep retrieving from the bookshelf.

--PROF. J.R. HARTLEY, Computer Based Learning Unit, Unversity of Leeds, in Journal for Computer Assisted Learning

"new synthesis"
In this book Bob Horn has brought together the depth of his years of experience in information design with a wealth of research on the history and practice of visual languages. The result is a new synthesis: a way of thinking about visual language that integrates and extends the different elements on which he draws. It may come to be, as he predicts, the starting point for a new field of study that develops the "global language for the 21st century".

--TERRY WINOGRAD, Professor, Stanford University. Program on People, Computers, and Design, Department of Computer Science

"Engaging writing, attractive graphics, and a provocative subject."

--BARRETT HAZELTINE, in Science, Technology, and Society, No. 120, Summer 1999

"provides deep insight into complex ideas and issues"
Each page is a delight to the eye and provides deep insight into complex ideas and issues. Horn uses visual language as a tool for mapping out ideas in ways that allows us to digest in hours complex issues that might otherwise have taken weeks. The book is a wonder example of his art and craft bringing together words and pictures into a rich visual language that simplify and illuminate complexity. Through this work he proves his point that visual language is more efficient and effective at conveying complex ideas and situations than conventional methods of communication. I believe that visual language will change the world by making information more accessible and providing us with the tools for making sense of the information we need to live in an information rich environment.

--DON BRAISBY, donbraisby@compuserve.com from Great Britain, reviewed at <amazon.com> September 20, 1999

"A uniquely useful and challenging learning adventure"
Visual language, combining text and images, has been around for a long time -- but only in the last two decades, with the rise of desktop publishing and design, has it become commonly accessible. Horn, a pioneer in the field (and inventor of Information Mapping), wants us to acknowledge the power inherent in this melange.

To communicate his case, Horn uses visual language. This makes the book twice as interesting: you, the reader, learn about visual language as you experience it. This book is full of discoveries and demonstrations. Begin it on a lazy weekend and you may not want to stop until you're done.

It's challenging that Horn uses clipart throughout, to make the point that one need not be an artist to write visual language. That may be so; but clipart, despite the ingenuity of its authors, has limitations, especially conceptual banality. Horn is a master; others of us might have more difficulty treating complex issues with visual language based on clipart.

No matter. One can easily envision a more subtle and sublime form of visual communication using more eloquent graphics. VISUAL LANGUAGE remains fun and informative from beginning to end. This book is both a text and a how-to. Read and apply it well!

--BOB JACOBSON, bluefire@well.com from Redwood City, California, reviewed at <amazon.com> August 21, 1999. Bob Jacobson is editor of the recent MIT Press book, Information Design

"foundational book"
"Foundational book ... launches a new field of study."

--ROBERT PHILIP WEBER, Author, Dynamics of Culture

"how 21st century people will communicate"
"You won't understand the effect of computers and technology on how 21st century people will communicate without this book."

--WALTER TRUETT ANDERSON, Author, Reality Isn't What It Used To Be

"Bob Horn gets it!"
Bob Horn gets it! His book confronts three big lies about graphics: 1) That pictures are just decoration. 2) That only artists can create effective graphics. 3) That words and pictures are enemies.

And his book walks the talk! It integrates visual elements and text; it uses simple clip art; and shows-while-it-tells, and tells-while-it-shows.

--WILLIAM HORTON, Author of Illustrating Computer Documentation, The Icon Book, Designing and Writing Online Documentation; and the Web Page Design Cookbook