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Visual-verbal rhetoric
y
classical rhetoric
persuasion
rhetorical figures
Literary rhetoric
Rhetoric is one of the scarcely researched areas of design, although the
designer is confronted with rhetorical phenomena in his daily work.
Owing to its origin in classical Antiquity, rhetoric is encumbered with
tradition. At first it does not appear suitable for the study of modern
communications, which is primarily based on retinal space, and the
interplay of text and picture, sound and music.
Seduction
Rhetoric can be called a set of seductive heuristics, used to influence
feelings and moods in the person to whom the message is addressed.
Humberto Maturana defines feelings in this way: Biologically, feelings are
physical dispositions through which domains of action are determined or characterized.
Feelings are bodily processes through which the areas of action are specified within
which we move. 1
69 Visual-verbal rhetoric
fright passes as soon as the danger is over. Moods, on the other hand, are
generally of longer duration. They are concerned with an approach to
future possibilities of action. A depression is a mood characterized by the
fact that there seem to be no future prospects. Specialists in advertising
and corporate identity direct their rhetorical techniques to creating certain
attitudes in the public or breaking them down, depending on the policy
and strategy the company is using to present itself.
Visual differentiation
The designer is a specialist in, among other things, visual distinctions, and
everyday cultural semantics. He influences the feelings, moods and attitudes
of the user by employing visual means assigned to formal and semantic
categories to convey messages. In the design field, practice is much more
advanced than theory. The language-based rhetorical analyses of mass
media, advertising, video clips, and infodesign (diagrams, scientific illus-
trations, maps, sign systems, interfaces for computer programmes) bypass
the essential in that they treat the visual components as a secondary ele-
ment. That can be explained as due to the lack of an analytical, descriptive
set of instruments. Visual rhetoric is in a rudimentary state, compared with
the maturity of literary rhetoric.
Semiotics
The textbooks on rhetoric offer a wide range of subtle classifications, but
the terminology is based in Ancient Greek and Latin languages, making it
difficult to work with these definitions. It must be asked whether we need
a new approach to rhetoric that would take into account modern semiotics.
Since the combination of text and picture available in modern commu-
nications was technically impossible in antiquity, it was never a concern in
classical rhetoric.
71 Visual-verbal rhetoric
Five distinctions
Classical rhetoric is divided into five main areas:
heuristics, to collect materials, especially to trace arguments
heuristics on the classification of the material collected
prescriptions and recommendations on the stylistic formulation of
the structured material
heuristics for learning texts by heart
recommendations on diction and gesture
The techniques in the third point that include the stylistic properties of
texts are the most important for an analysis of advertising messages. These
stylistic properties are expressed mainly in the form of rhetorical figures or
tropes. They are defined as ...the art of saying something in a new way 4
and as ...giving words a new meaning or a new use, in order to make speech more
pleasing, more lively and more penetrating. 5
73 Visual-verbal rhetoric
rhetorical approach can still lead to a deeper understanding of the pheno-
mena that a graphic designer confronts daily.
This is a revised and shortened version of the article first published in the
periodical of the hfg ulm (Institute of Design Ulm) 14/15/16 (1965). The study
presented here deals with the lowest level of rhetorical figures. The work of
Judith Williamson, Decoding Advertisements. London: Marion Boyars 1978, deals
with a higher contextual interpretation.
75 Visual-verbal rhetoric
Analogy We sell sharp ideas
The sharpened pencil corresponds to the
Examples sharp ideas. Average advertising
is visualized by unsharpened pencils.
Moreover, another rhetorical figure is inclu-
ded here, a metonym. The ideas are shown
through a means with which they
can be recorded on paper.
77 Visual-verbal rhetoric
Visual-verbal comparison, combined with a
quotation Contemporary Dutch Master-
piece. The historical masterpiece by
Vermeer is compared with a contemporary
Dutch masterpiece - Gouda cheese.
79 Visual-verbal rhetoric
Metaphoric reversal Geizkragen (lit. tight
collar = tight-fisted). The advertisement is
for information provision and punch cards;
here the cards are bent into a collar in a
literal illustration of the metaphor.
81 Visual-verbal rhetoric
Rhetorical question and visual analogy
Are just two shades of opinion enough?
The two shades of one opinion are set in
analogy to the contrast between black and
white.