You can't read what you can't see. If it doesn't get read, we have failed at our task. Not only can we do that through images, but we can sometimes more effectively do that with words. Words are not images and to transform them to such dramatically alters their meaning, but words and images combined qualifies the effort as design rather than art. Words have their own universe of meaning and visual implication, independent of the other visual elements in the composition.
Words mean something before they ever get to the design.
A blue square probably doesn't. It exists as a blue square inside and outside the design. We've got the obvious concept of furry canines running around in the woods. We've got the not-so obvious concept from the forties and fifties of a lecherous bar hound cruising the scene for some conjugal action. When designing, we bring with us an array of elements, some of them organized and premeditated, some of theme incongruous and contradictory, and we arrange them in alignment or in opposition to create meaning that they didn't have before we stuck them all together.