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Introduction to Visual Rhetoric & Document Design

Introduction to Visual Rhetoric & Document Design. Julia Romberger jromberg@odu.edu. Visual Rhetoric Definition. Visual rhetoric applies the rhetorical situation to decision making about images and document layout

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Introduction to Visual Rhetoric & Document Design

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  1. Introduction to Visual Rhetoric & Document Design Julia Romberger jromberg@odu.edu

  2. Visual Rhetoric Definition • Visual rhetoric applies the rhetorical situation to decision making about images and document layout • Visual rhetoric understands that images carry meaning and can be analyzed and interpreted • Visual rhetoric understands that design and images should assist the audience’s ability to read and understand

  3. Rhetorical Situation • Audience - those who will use the document; you must consider their previous experience with similar documents and the topic • conventions - audiences have expectations based on their previous experience • Purpose - what you want the document to accomplish • Context - circumstances in which your readers use your document

  4. Design Strategies • Arrangement • Clarity • Conciseness • Tone • Ethos

  5. Arrangement • Alignment • Proximity • Repetition • Contrast

  6. Alignment • Items on the page are lined up with each other, both horizontally and vertically. • There are three basic alignments: centered, left justified and right justified.

  7. Proximity • Refers to the relationships that items develop when they are close together. • Implies items are related (for example, the bullets on this list appear related because they are in close proximity to each other).

  8. Repetition • Refers to the idea that designers should repeat certain elements to tie the disparate parts of a document together. • Makes it seem like the individual pages or slides are all part of the same document or presentation.

  9. Contrast • Establishes a hierarchy of information • Can be obtained by manipulating font (style and size), color, background designs, etc. • Establishes a focal point

  10. Clarity • Helps the receiver decode the messages. • Can be achieved through choice of readable typefaces - • Serif for body text • Sans seriffor headings and graphic (display) • Enhanced through spacing between characters, choice of color

  11. Conciseness • Refers to the visual bulk and intricacy of the design • Means generating designs that are appropriately succinct within a particular situation • Achieved through controlling details in images, variations in size, ornateness, and spacing of text

  12. Tone • Demonstrates attitude toward readers and subject • Achieved through style of type and images relative to subject and audience

  13. Ethos • Refers to building trusting relationship between writer and reader • Sense of character and credibility established through creating both credible, interesting content and design that is appealing and useful in helping the audience read andunderstand the document • Using & knowing cultural values (terministic screens)

  14. Interdependence • Each of these strategies is interdependent: • with each other • with the verbal content

  15. Recap of Terms • Arrangement • Contrast • Repetition • Alignment • Proximity • Clarity • Conciseness • Tone • Ethos

  16. Sources Robin Williams’s The Non-Designer’s Design Book (Peachpit Press, 1994) • Charles Kostelnick and David Roberts’s Designing Visual Language (Allyn and Bacon, 1998)

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