There is a gap in the academic literature examining how visual elements enhance verbal communication. We intuitively know that a well-placed graph or diagram can help get a complex point across, but the "how"s and "why"s remain more art than science. When you look at the average academic journal, this shortage of visual research is not so surprising. Despite all the urgent dialog in recent years about multimodalities and visual literacy, the publishing process makes it very difficult to challenge this "text first" status quo.