A frequent topic over the past year on the FIR podcast that my co-host Shel Holtz and I have pondered and discussed is the rise of visual communication.

A key reference point for us was the interview we did in August 2012 with Brian McNely on Instagram as a medium for image-power and his research with case histories on what brands do with Instagram.

Today, video has come up alongside static images with tools like Vine and Instagram’s video feature that make it incredibly easy and simple for anyone to capture six or fifteen seconds respectively of action on a smartphone and instantly share it with a small group – or the world – online.

This theme grabbed my attention this week when I saw what was happening on and from the catwalk at New York Fashion Week.

Take a look at a short video by brusselssprout_in_manhattan who says:

For New York Fashion Week, @tommyhilfiger introduced the first ever runway show InstaMeet. I was happy to be one of the 20 Instagrammers chosen to attend & document the event.

Check out the video:

As The Verge noted in its report:

[…] No one should come away surprised; fashion tends to bring the amateur photographer out in people, and the runways are by now no stranger to the blue glow of smartphone screens. Official attendees needed only to guide where those photos went to try to make them more meaningful.

Bold text is my emphasis.

There’s no better example of that guidance The Verge speaks of than this video report by retail, and shopping obsessive Racked in its video report, All Hail the Screens: How Instagram Has Shaped NYFW:

Screens, whether on phones or pads, have become ubiquitous in the front row at New York Fashion Week, especially since Instagram’s launch in 2010. Faced with a wall of screens at every show, Racked journeyed to Hilfiger’s NYFW ‘InstaMeet’, went backstage at Kenneth Cole and spoke with industry longtimer Mickey Boardman of Paper Magazine to see how the industry is reacting to the glut of social media, and how sharing sites might be changing fashion week for the better.

Imagination applied. Along with a great deal of structure and guidance.