This research investigates the theme of verbo-visuality – the complex relationship between writing and image – through a historical analysis which starts from the origin of writing and comes to nowadays. Since the beginning these two areas, have intertwined, contaminated, chased and at times overlapped each other.
Indeed, centuries before the concept of visual poetry was invented, there were already plenty of explorations difficult to label as artistic or literary. From the first pictograms to the massive medieval and Renaissance production, coming then to the most famous avant-gardes and to the hybrid experience of the Bauhaus, every era, consistently with the technological growth and the socio-cultural changes of the time, explored the potential of this dualism.
Therefore, this research also analyzes the relationship between the artistic-poetic sphere and communication design, observing how they interacted and how they their uniformed their linguistic codes. My thesis will finally demonstrates familiarity with the history of the word-image relationship can help designers to understand the potentiality of their combinations. Moreover, this knowledge can become a fundamental tool to convey visual messages in the best possible way, helping to develop the designers’ awareness about the reasons behind their layout choices.
