Study On Cross-cultural Translation Of Graphical Signs In Visual Communication Design

Visual communication design is a creative process that visualizes given ideas and communicates them with graphic signs to achieve the aim of promoting the exchange of information among people.With the rapid development of information technology and network technology in the 21 st century,the media of information have gone through great changes.Visual images has featured very largely in present communication and brought about the advent of image era.In visual communication design,graphical signs are the carrier of communicating information and the focus of visual attention.Though easy to identify and memorize,graphical signs may produce different associations because of difference in religion,customs,tradition and values.Therefore misunderstandings and barriers come into being in inter-cultural communication.This research tries to explore and analyze different interpretations ofgraphical signs in visual communication design that arise from the difference between Chinese and Western cultures.First,with Peirce’s semiotic theories,the relationship between verbal signs and graphical signs is established and analyzed in terms of interpretant and object.Second,with analyses of the practices and theories in intersemiotic translation and cross-cultural translation,the significance of cross-cultural translation of graphical signs is explored in intercultural communication.Thirdly,with a series of cases in visual communication design,interpretation and translation of graphical signs is illustrated in intercultural communication,and methods and strategies are put forward that may be employed in cross-cultural translation of graphical signs in visual communication design.This research finds that in visual communication design,graphical signs may produce different interpretations because of difference in religion,history,customs and aesthetics.Proper interpretation and translation between verbal signs and graphical signs contributes to improving the efficiency and accuracy in information communication.