2. Today
1) Icebreaker
2) Finishing up what we had from last time– discussion
3) A tragedy and a solution: defining visual rhetoric
4) Applying that visual rhetoric definition and our accrued
skills. AKA: deep analysis of images
5) A look toward design
6) Homework

3. Icebreaker
1) Name
2) If your friends were asked to describe you with a single
song, what do you think they’d pick?

4. Quick visual digression
If you’re in the other class, you’ll see even more
of these later, but I thought these two
typographical images were so interesting they
warranted a double-dip.

5. From http://inspirationfeed.com/inspiration/typography-inspiration/50-remarkable-examples-of-typography-design-3/

6. From http://inspirationfeed.com/inspiration/typography-inspiration/50-remarkable-examples-of-typography-design-3/

8. Wysocki
“Children’s books often have very large faces, which are then
scaled down somewhat for young adult books, which are then
scaled down again for adult texts.”

10. Wysocki
“Letters have shape because of their typefaces. Because
typefaces are a major visual strategy for a text’s composers to
signal the genre into which the text is to fit, and because the
choice of different typefaces can signal argumentative moves
in a text, it is worth giving typefaces—their categories and
histories—some attention”

12. Barthes
"If our reading is satisfactory, the photograph analyzed offers
us three message: a linguistic message, a coded iconic
message, and non-coded iconic message.”
The rhetoric of an image is specific to the extent that it is
subject to the physical constraints of vision but general to the
extent that "figures are never more than formal relations of
elements." ---the culture you're from affects how you
see/interpret an image

13. Barthes
• Denoted (non-coded) is the actual meaning.
• Connotated (coded) is what you perceive as the message
• Linguistic message is the text. Without this, the image is
open to too much interpretation. The viewer must be guided
a little to the meaning they (the creator) want the viewer to
see

14. Barthes
• In every society various techniques are developed intended
to fix the floating chain of signifieds in such a way as to
counter the terror of uncertain signs
• The psyche is its own language... Each person is going to
interpret images differently regardless of the other meanings
associated with it, because of personal experience and how
the image speaks and appeals to them

15. Benjamin
The overall message of the piece is that he first introduced the
concept of aura. Within section VII, Benjamin introduces the
idea that photographs and film are made to be reproduced, so
that we interpret and accept them differently than something
such as a one-of-a-kind painting, which is much more unique.

16. Benjamin
In section VII Benjamin says, “The reactionary attitude toward
a Picasso painting changes into the progressive reaction
toward a Chaplin movie.” By having the ability to be
reproduced much easier, it changes the reaction that the
masses have to it. The exposure that people have to paintings
and artwork that are not easily or able to be reproduced is
much less than the exposure that people have to film and
photographs .

17. Benjamin
Benjamin also says, “Painting simply is in no position to
present an object for simultaneous collective experience, as it
was possible for architecture at all times, for the epic poem in
the past, and for the movie today.”

18. Benjamin
An current example to help illustrate what Benjamin is saying is
comparing a high-end, sought after shoes, such as Christian Louboutin,
to an easy to get a hold of brand, like Sketchers. In this example,
Louboutins could represent a Picasso painting, while the Sketchers can
represent the Chaplin movie.

19. Kress
“The sign - a complex message of words, of letters, of colour
and font-types with all their cultural resonances - reflects the
interests of its designer as much as the designer’s imagined
sense of those who will see and read the sign. The sign is
based on a specific rhetorical purpose, and intent to persuade
with all means possible those who pass by and notice it.”

20. Kress
Designers intent is for the audience to automatically relate to
the images and formulate a specific intended meaning. With
McDonald’s sign for instance, everyone knows that it will be
Western food that will be served.

21. Kress
“In one sense, colours work similarly: I have encountered the
colour ‘red’ in many instances, as in “red light district”, as a
colour of lipsticks…Words have their histories, but they also
refer; they name things (as nouns) or actions (as verbs) or
attributes (as adjectives) or as relations of location (as
prepositions), and so on.”

22. Kress
The same image or phases can have different meanings to the
people of different cultures. The swastika symbolizes harmony
in many Indian religions. But in many other cultures, this
symbol is associated with the Nazis and intolerance.
Dragons in the Chinese culture symbolizes against evil, but in
Christianity it has long represented Satan.

24. The day we wrote up our collaborative
def…
…something ate my saved PPT, and so Microsoft
restored it to it’s pristine pre-edit form. Boo-hiss.
But we can rebuild it. And we’re going to do that,
based on what we’ve learned since.
But this time, I want to form the definition a little
differently. We’ve learned all these skills, so I want to
take a sustained look at a few images, do some
analysis, and as we do so, take notes. At the end ,we’ll
write a new definition.

29. Things to think about…
1) Which of those posters is the most
interesting?
2) Which makes the best argument for the
show?
3) Which does the best job to appeal to your
personal interest?
4) What strategies are employed, and to what
ends?

34. Things to think about…
1) Why the change? *note– it’s more dire here*
2) What does each logo represent?
3) What makes the second one a better fit?
4) What is gained and what is lost in this change-
over?

35. Visual rhetoric is…
…

36. For Thursday:
Read for class: Kimball & Hawkins Chapter
2, Golombisky & Hagen Chapters 1-3, and
Missy is Missing
And please do this much of Design Task 3: look
around campus, or around town, and find a flier
or poster you feel doesn’t work well. Take a
picture of it, or take the flier itself, and bring it to
class.