Architecture, as a design discipline, relies heavily on visual communication. The advent of new technologies and the exploration of new digital graphic representation techniques reflect architects' growing interest in expressive fields. The need to convey a message and embody ideas, narrating the values and reflections that structure an architectural project, places graphic communication tools in a position of particular relevance.
If this intrinsic need to convey information exists within the architectural field, could comics, as a narrative medium, serve as a useful tool for design communication?
To study the potential of this narrative tool, we must first understand that while comics utilize two major communication instruments (word and image), they are more than the simple conjunction of both. Interaction and simultaneity are the keys to their expressive utility. Word merges with image, driving its message forward into a unified whole.
The advantages of comics over other graphic narrative arts, such as cinema, were postulated by Scott McCloud more than 20 years ago. This medium effectively allows for variations in the reading flow and, consequently, in the time it takes to absorb information. Navigation within the graphic piece is personal, engaging the reader, so there are no temporal constraints as there are in film. The reader has virtually unlimited time to examine, digest, and understand it.
At the same time, this tool allows for a non-linear reading experience, overlapping the beginning and the end of the narrative within the same graphic piece. A film viewer cannot see the next frame before the creator allows it, giving the creator absolute control over the viewing order.
