Dan Roam
Portfolio, $29.95, 341 pages
Sometimes it helps to think visually. Blah Blah Blah looks at how we have lost the ability to use visual grammar, relying instead on pure verbiage. The author asserts that although some forms of graphic information exist, such as charts and photographs, in general we do not use graphics in order to get information across to other people as much as we could. This book explains how to use graphics with greater frequency and how to make written language more effective.
This is one of those books that the company communications officer (CCO) should read. Although some CCOs will already be aware of the need to communicate through visual as well as verbal means, too many communications people keep to purely verbal means. There are a number of great lessons for those who don’t think that they can draw, but this makes a point of telling them to get over themselves and just do it. It does try to oversell the message once or twice and sometimes ignores why verbal “won” over visual, but in general, this is a great book in a media-based age.
Jamais Jochim