Visual images abound in accounting-related media and are powerful tools for communicating
messages regarding all aspects of organisations. This is particularly important in the
case of intellectual capital, where a deficient accounting framework for intangibles leads
stakeholders to seek enlightenment beyond the financial statements. The central contribution
of the work presented here is the development of theory to guide the interpretation of
visual rhetoric in pictures and photographs. Within an over-arching framework of Barthesian
visual semiotics, a model of visual rhetoric and repetition is developed by reference to
the work of Durand and others. Four types of visual repetition are identified: identity, similarity,
accumulation and series. In the light of this model, illustrative examples of visual
images from annual reports are analysed to indicate how visual rhetoric contributes to
the communication of intellectual capital.