ABSTRACT
A picture, so popular culture tells us, paints a thousand words, and this is the issue this chapter deals with: the degree to which pictures—visual culture—can communicate or present not just forms, but stories too. The chapter explores the question of what constitutes narrative, what its various elements are and how these elements work together. Theorists of narrative argue that one of the most important design tools is time. Indeed, for Arthur Asa Berger, ‘narratives, in the most simple sense, are stories that take place in time’—although it is difficult to think of a story that doesn’t take place in time. Time is not the only issue in visual stories. Narrative can also be implied or identified in a visual text by devices such as the arrangement of the iconography or the use of perspective to provide a central focus. Visual texts also use figures and techniques to convey stories through conventions known by most people in a society.
