ABSTRACT
The driving force behind Designing Texts is the understanding that our students must
be visually literate if they are to succeed in their professional careers as well as in
their roles as critically aware participants in society. They must understand visual
communication, and they must have some level of skill not only in interpreting it, but
also in creating it. As Keith Kenney (2009), founding editor of Visual Communication
Quarterly, notes, “If you work in business, you need visuals to help sell your products.
If you work in anthropology, biology, chemistry, economics, or education, you also
need to communicate visually. I could continue listing professions, but you get the
point” (p. xv). Kenney continues by arguing that, if visual communication is increas-
ingly prevalent in the workplace and in society more broadly, it should also be more
prevalent in the university curriculum.
