Killer Visual Strategies: Engage Any Audience, Improve Comprehension, and Get Amazing Results Using Visual Communication

by Amy Balliett, Guy Kawasaki (Foreword)

Discover the foundation, power, and necessity of visual communication with this essential guide

Visual communication has changed. It’s gone from being an optional medium for relaying information to an important method for building connections and increasing understanding. We now use visual storytelling to help us establish and strengthen relationships, engage distracted audiences, and bring clarity to complexity. Killer Visual Strategies examines how visual communication has transformed how brands connect with their customers and colleagues alike. It looks at the growing audience demand for quality visual content and how organizations must meet this demand or risk being left behind.

Killer Visual Strategies traces the history of visual communication and explores why it now plays an integral role in our daily lives. As Amy Balliett tells the story of this evolving medium, she naturally incorporates visuals, such as timelines and data visualizations throughout. In addition to providing actionable rules to follow for creating high-impact visual content, Balliett also explores the latest trends, including visual search, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR). Then, she looks forward to what lies ahead in this dynamic field.  The book’s topics can benefit readers in a range of professions where visual content is now vital to sharing a message.

Learn best practices for visual communication Gain inspiration from countless visual examples Stay on top of the latest trends in visual communication Understand visual communication for marketing, sales, design, HR, and more Killer Visual Strategies provides a clearer picture of the evolution of visual communication as a fundamental part of how a story is told.

Genres: Nonfiction, Design, Business, Technology, Reference

218 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 8, 2020

About the author

Amy Balliett is the CEO and founder of the creative content agency, Killer Visual Strategies (formerly Killer Infographics). A serial entrepreneur, her first venture found her as the proprietor of an ice cream parlor and penny candy store in the center of a summer vacation community. She subsequently built a successful career in marketing before launching her agency in 2010. In the years since, she has grown Killer Visual Strategies to become the industry leader in visual communication, driving visual strategy and creative content campaigns for global brands including Microsoft, Boeing, Adobe, Nikon, Starbucks, the National Endowment for the Arts, the United Nations, and more. Considered an expert in her field, Balliett speaks at dozens of conferences each year including SXSW, Adobe MAX, SMX, and more. She is also a regular teacher at The School of Visual Concepts, a guest lecturer at several universities, a LinkedIn Learning instructor, an Inc contributor, and the author of the newly released book Killer Visual Strategies: Engage Any Audience, Improve Comprehension, and Get Amazing Results Using Visual Communication.

Reviews

[Erin]

This is a complete guide for visual communication that will be useful to marketers, brand leaders, C-suite execs, and designers alike. No other book takes a more comprehensive approach to the study of visual communication. This book not only looks at our millennia-long history of communicating visually; it also explores how visual content impacts the brain from a scientific perspective.

And this is just the beginning. Part II outlines the essential rules of visual communication that everyone should know, from how to avoid common data visualization mistakes to best practices around font, color palette, and more.

Finally, Part III outlines practical considerations in design project management that will be useful for any organization looking to develop high-quality visual content. And it's clear after reading this book that every organization should have that goal. There really is no more engaging way to reach your audiences. So if you're looking to improve your marketing and/or communications, or just become a better designer, I'd highly recommend this book!

[Ian Khan]

I learned a lot about the field of Visual Design and Visual Strategy. While the book does a great job of pointing out what not to do with respect for visual design and data visualization, it left me wanting more tangible examples of great visual design... i.e., a focus on what one should do.

I did appreciate, however, how this book focused on the "rules" of great visual design, and provided a high-level process framework (replete with recommendation on staffing/resourcing) on how one can approach brining great visual designs to market. On the staffing front as well; the author does a great job of segmenting and discerning the key roles in a world-class visual design agency (or in-house agency)

This book proves a very valuable resource to have in your tool kit as both a designer and entrepreneur.

[Shani]

I've been on the lookout for a book that could help me figure out how to better promote my work. Because I work in graphics and everything I do is highly visual, this book grabbed me. The author does an amazing job of not only grabbing your attention but keeping it on all things important. This wasn't an overly technical textbook on how to market yourself, instead, it was a personable and relatable how to that did exactly what it promised. I was engaged, amazed and so happy! I would highly recommend taking notes or bookmarking certain areas to go back and check out. I'm excited to put the things I've learned into my personal marketing. Loved it!

[Joseph Comeau]

A good book, especially if you are new to visual communication. It is short and high level, so experienced practitioners will find little value. What surprised me the most was the sub-par editing. There's actually a couple of straight up grammatical errors and many of the figures in the book have a pointless '[]' after the number as if there was going to be some caption, but forgotten. The book talks about attention to detail, but these errors just seemed to undermine the whole validity of the book.

[Rachel]

Super disappointed. Could've used tons more examples of visual content do's and don'ts and instead she alienates half her audience by talking about politics and only castigates one side
(multiple times throughout the book I might add). I regret buying this book. Of her actual rules, half are so hollow I had no supporting notes to put under them. Don't waste your time. Just ask AI to summarize this book for you.

[Marcell Nimführ]

very little.

[Mario]

Strategies were great, but this book could have been ten pages of actual content.

[Christopher]

Required reading for anyone who wants to improve their visual communications skills from creating content to managing teams who do this type of work.

[Taylor Despain]

I think this would have felt more useful at the beginning of my career. Good info but not new info.

[Ivy Digest]

The rule in visuals: Show, don’t tell.

Yet this breaks her own rules by writing too much and showing too little.

As I’ve come to expect with Wiley, this is a self-promotional book to market the author’s business. The quality is better than most, as it uses glossy paper and more graphics. But the content is a tad beyond basic to whet your appetite to hire a visual strategist (like her).

This doesn’t give great examples of good design, just examples of her work.

You won’t learn to design your own content, but you’ll learn how to find someone who can help you plan your brand strategy.
@Ivy Digest

[Stefanie]

Read this for work. I know, cool marketing stuff. But as someone with no background in marketing/design, it was a helpful guide. Simple, to the point, and had clear examples.

[Zsofia]

Somewhat misplaced expectations on my side, there is a lot of text in here explaining killer visual strategies. I was hoping creating infographics would be taught through more visual content.
Might be a better-suited read for beginners.

[Elaine]

Started the LinkedIn Learning version of this, where of course the author mentioned her book, and lo and behold the public library had it via O'Reilly e-books. A very quick read, especially since the final 30% is the various appendices rather than chapter content.

Nothing terribly new or exciting was covered; I feel like Balliett played it a little too safe in her selection of content, which was basic started-level info (colors and fonts have meanings! Don't get creative with chart axes!). The set-up -- introducing her story of a couple successful infographics she made that increased her company's traffic but, plot twist, they weren't really infographics at all! [Really? The Firefox dictionary didn't know the word infographics? Okay.] Because they had too much text and no actual visual narrative -- that was a great start. Shades of Tufte, who also isn't a fan of pointless quantagrams, for instance.

I was honestly a bit underwhelmed by the examples provided throughout the book (sample data, usually, but some real campaign snippets here and there), most of which I felt didn't actually live up to the premise of telling a story visually. I see 5 heart illustrations and 3 are colored -- 3/5 of....something to do with hearts... something? The text, small though it was, was still essential in interpreting that from-real-life example (the hearts, by the way, represented cardiologists rather than actual hearts).

I did appreciate the intro-to-Google-research part of Chapter 11, though. Trying to teach students the process of searching for information is, theoretically, the point of my job, so I'm always on the look out for real-world demonstrations of the hows and wherefores. And advice to cite your sources so you don't lose credibility, especially in this era of fake news! Yes!