I have an image I want to display inside a UIView. In Interface Builder, the UIView is the root and a UIImageView is its child. The view is connected to view controller's view outlet, and the image view is connected to the image view outlet: @property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UIImageView *imageView; If I try to set the image property of UIImageView before it's visible, the image doesn't show up. TestView *testView = [[TestView alloc] initWithNibName:@"TestView" bundle:nil]; testview.imageView.image = [logos objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]; [self.navigationController pushViewController:testView animated:YES]; If, however, I pass the image to the controller and set the image property in view did load, the image becomes visible. TestView *testView = [[TestView alloc] initWithNibName:@"TestView" bundle:nil]; testview.image = [logos objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]; [self.navigationController pushViewController:testView animated:YES]; - (void)viewDidLoad { [super viewDidLoad]; imageView.image = image; } What is causing the image to not show up in the first scenario?