비언어 커뮤니케이션에서 문화 간 손짓언어의 시각적 표현 분석

Abstract

In the globalization era, communication between different cultures is important to states,corporations, and individuals in the global business environment. The cultural differences incommunication, however, cause difficulties as people interact with others from different culturalbackgrounds. The purpose of this study was to investigate nonverbal communication, whichaccounts for majority of communication, to promote smooth intercultural communication, thushelping to increase the cognitive abilities for different cultures needed in the global businessenvironment and exploring their applicability to the design domain. The research scope was setas follows: first, literature study was conducted to understand nonverbal communication, examineits relations with culture, and compare and analyze intercultural hand gesture language; andsecond, a case study was conducted on "thumbs up," whose utilization rate was high in the handgesture language, in print ads. As for methodology, they were categorized into four groups,which include up and down, center and margin, foreground and background, and proximity andessence, according to the visual structure and meaning. The study then analyzed five types ofvisual expressions(appeal, typography, layout, characteristics of visual expressions, and colorsand backgrounds). The findings were as follows: first, the ads that used thumbs up for their"positive/negative," "excellent," and "hitchhiking" meanings made a rational appeal, whereas theads that used thumbs up for their "like" meanings made an emotional appeal; second, mostheadlines in typography delivered a message in the bold Gothic font, and nonverbalcommunication ads were common with texts excluded; third, as for visual layouts, most ofthumbs up were at the center of the paper. The visual flow was from top to bottom and fromleft to right. Most brands fixed the gaze by placing them at the right bottom; fourth, as for thecharacteristics of visual expressions, most of the ads gave a close-up of thumbs up or usedthem along with human models; and finally, as for color expressions, the ads that gave aclose-up of thumbs up highlighted the products mainly by using color contrast and brand colors. These findings indicate that nonverbal communication have high utilization value in variousdomains including advertising design as well as daily interactions.