Visual Rhetoric

What is Visual Rhetoric? We use visual thinking as a major part of our cognition (thinking process) We live in a visually dominated world We must be able to read, dissect, and produce effective visuals

Today, when audiences encounter a mass communication, such as a magazine advertisement or a public service announcement, the message often forms a subtle (or not-so subtle) argument. In other words, the message tries to convince the receiver (YOU) to agree with an idea or to do something (like buy the latest iPhone or vote for George W. Bush).

Mass communications use many techniques to persuade their audiences; these techniques (part of the art of rhetoric) generally use images and sound to evoke ethos, pathos or logos in viewers. Media literacy must teach us how to analyze (and critique!) these techniques, allowing us to make more informed decisions about the arguments being presented.

What to consider: Text elements (font can influence the author’s ethos) Color Visuals and graphics (to convey specific information, to relate content, or to accent) Overall design (avoid clutter)

Analyzing Images

Focal Point: the spot where your eyes immediately go when viewing an image (with light)

with light and/or with lines

Figure-Ground Contrast: what is in the forefront (often, the focal point) versus what is in the background

Grouping: Proximity objects that are grouped close together are perceived as having a connection or relationship

Grouping: Similarity putting similar objects in close proximity to each other creates a sense of unity

Color The brighter the color, the more powerful its effect will be.

Continuation Elements that suggest a contiguous visual line will cause the viewer to draw connection and establish relationship (i.e. constellations)

Lines used to create a sense of motion or movement

Closure encourages viewers to move their eyes in predictable and desirable ways to fill in missing information

The emotions of lines wavy = grace, softness, change

diagonal = stress

vertical = movement

horizontal = calm

Story how the elements combine to tell a story, and to tell a story of the creator’s values, point-of-view, concerns, etc.

Affect Transfer Linking two unlike entities – one that evokes powerful emotion and one that does not – in such a way that the emotion is applied to the less powerful entity.

Affect Transfer #2:

The image is a great example of visual rhetoric. The people behind this photo are representing the earth with their hands, colored mostly blue, wrapped into a ball. This symbolization is likely one for the environmental movements to highlight the damages that humans have caused to the Earth and putting forth the notion that some humans are actually in favor of preserving the planet on which we live. The fact that the "earth" is formed by hands from two different people represents the fact that the Earth is inhabited by many different organisms, and that unity is needed to ensure that the planet remains inhabitable for the next generations and beyond.

Analyze this advertisement