Words as Signs

Historically, words have been in use to effectively communicate, seduce and be persuasive. In today’s technologically advanced and visually obsessed world, they have taken over our lives and have become bits and bytes that pixelate our imagination. Reading is constantly confronted by seeing and scrolling... while words float over and across the screen enticing to draw our attention or distract us from reality as they bend every form of what is real. But still, however treacherous they may/can be, as designers, we will always use them to seduce, persuade or dissuade; but more than anything else, never lose sight of the fact that they are 'visual' and graphic and can be used not only to tell stories but to also paint them....

Some Buzzwords published in NY Times with illustrations by Jessica Hische are worth checking:
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/weekinreview/buzzwords2008.html