Abstract
Umberto Eco considers loss as an indispensable condition in the field of linguistic and literary translation and interpretation, in which the original text must necessarily undergo a transformation for the sake of understanding. Something very similar happens in visual communication — because communication it is — where complex concepts are transposed from the semantic level to the graphic-visual one for the sake of user clarity. In this process of transition, the design choices and the use of graphic techniques make the output always different from the original starting point. “Communicating almost the same thing” presents and analyses a series of characteristics and recurring techniques in the narrative practices of visual communication, which are not comprehensive nor can they be regarded as absolute definitions; however, they can be combined, expanded and confused. The aim of this text is to provide the reader with useful tools for communicating via images.