This special issue of Studies in Material Thinking brings together research papers from a variety of design perspectives that examine visual communication's role in meditating the complex relationships between the immaterial realm of ideas and experiences and the material realm of objects and actions. It is an area that has not been extensively investigated to date and there is a need for exploratory work that will help us to better understand practices and develop theories in relation to the eclectic range of physical and digital visual communications we encounter in contemporary society.