Multimodal Discourse outlines a new theory of communication for the age of interactive multimedia. Kress and Van Leeuwen show how two kinds of thought processes interact in the design and production of communicative messages: "design thinking" and "production thinking," the kind of thinking which occurs in direct interaction with the materials and media used. This book will be a key text in courses of language, media and communication willing to take on the theoretical challenges posed by multimodality, mulitmedia and multi-skilling, and it provides inspiring theoretical input for courses in interactive multimedia design.