Icebreaker

Say your name.

Tell everyone why you chose to come to Miami.

Barthes Rhetoric of Image

Annie Wold, Julie Bendel, Dani Barto

Overall Message• Knowing that a system, which takes over the signs of

another system in order to make them its signifiers in a system of connotation, we may say immediately that the literal image is denoted and the symbolic image is connoted

• Three Messages:– Linguistic– Denoted– Connoted

Linguistic• Writing used on the image• “Text helps to identify purely and simply the elements of the

scene and the scene itself; it is a matter of a denoted description of the image (a description which is often incomplete) or, of an operation” (pg. 274).

• Can be:– Titles– Captions– Accompanying a press article– Dialogue on a comic strip

Denoted

• Photograph in its literal state, logical, no code• “The photograph (in its literal state), by virtue of its

absolutely analogical nature seems to constitute a message without a code” (pg. 277).

Connoted

• Symbolic message, cultural, coded• “What gives the system its originality is that the

number of readings of the same lexical unit or lexia (of the same image) varies according to individuals” (pg. 280).

Rhetoric of the Image

Roland BarthesErin Higginson, Kelly Scholtz, Rebecca Clark

Main Idea 1

• “The linguistic message” – When you read the text, what does it literally say and then

what does it imply or represent– Two parts: He sees two kinds of linguistic messages at work: a

denoted message comprising of the caption and the labels on the produce, and a connoted message – the word ‘Panzani’ connotes Italianicity.

Main Idea 2

• “The symbolic message” (connoted message)– Four signs are identified from the non-linguistic part of the image

and the constitute the symbolic message, or connoted image– EX:

• The half-open bag signifies return from market• tomatoes and peppers signify Italianicity• the collection of objects signifies a total culinary service• the overall composition is reminiscent of, and therefore signifies, the

notion of a still life.

Main Idea 3

• “The literal message” (denoted image)–What the image actually shows–A message without a code• EX: tomato represents a tomato

“The visual elements and arrangements of a text perform persuasive work.”

“The visual elements and arrangements of a text perform persuasive work.”

● The creators of a text nearly always have a goal in mind, and try to sell the audience on that goalo Tools can be color, typography, arrangement, style, etc

● In the bonnaroo ad, the creator is trying to persuade people to buy ticketso Place the title in large, obvious texto List the various bands to show how big of an event it iso Neon colors imply an exciting festival atmosphere

“The visual aspects of text are (therefore) to be understood not simply in terms of physiology but

also in terms of social context.”

“The visual aspects of text are (therefore) to be understood not simply in terms of physiology but

also in terms of social context.”● Rhetoric is always situated in a social and cultural context no matter the format

and it cannot be interpreted without accounting for that context● This image only makes sense in light of the Eric Garner death

o The hashtag “I can’t breathe” was/is circulating in full force

Anne Wysocki:With Eyes that Think, and Compose, and Think

Katelyn DiNapoli, Victoria Slater

What is Visual Rhetoric?

● “If rhetoric, to turn our eyes all the way back to Aristotle, is the use of the available mean of persuasion to achieve particular ends, then whenever the means of persuasion include visual strategies, there is visual rhetoric at work” (Page 1).

● “I want us to be aware of not only of the particular visual strategies that a composer chooses when constructing texts aimed at persuading audiences toward specific ends … but also how the strategies that we choose reinforce … values, habits, and structures of our places and times” (3).

Consider Visual Rhetoric When Using Computers

● Why?o Readers should expect the visual aspects of texts on

computer screenso There are now more visually shaped texts that expect

its readers to be comfortable analyzingo We use visual aspects of text to learn about changes in

other values at work in our culture.

What does visual rhetoric look like?● As she considered how to present her

arguments on the web, she decided to “call out” to her readers visually, to creates both a sense of urgency.

● She wanted to make visible the starkness of the shootings as well as the possibility of change.

Wysocki

Meaning of Texts

Sam Seeds and Elizabeth Kent

“Someone designing a logo for a company considers very carefully how the color and shape and images in the logo will persuade those who see the logo to think of the company.”

“In doing analysis of the visual aspects of pages and screens, then, we need to keep in mind the social circumstances in which a text is composed and intowhich its author or authors hope it will fit and do its work”

With Eyes that Think, and Compose, and Think: Natalie Durot

Emily Hyde

Sabrina Toms

Main Point

• Visual rhetoric needs to be considered now more than in the past due to technology. – “Given our current cultural and technological situation,

readers expect the visual aspects of texts on the computer screens-but also now on paper-to be given more attention then they were afforded in the past”

Main Points

• Visual arrangements of arguments display our values and culture/structures of thinking & relationships. – “By analyzing and experimenting with our visual rhetoric,

it can help us develop new thinking and relationships that might help us better achieve our ends”

Group 7: Benjamin

Sara Lindsay and Chris Coppoletti

Cultural Signs in Messages• “The image straightway provides a series of

discontinous signs. It is the bringing together of the tomato, the pepper, and the tricolored hues (yellow, green, red) of the poster; its signified is Italy or rather italianicity.”

• This is an example of how certain colors represent different cultures & we can guess the cultural background of an advertised based off the colors shown.

Example in Advertisements

Linguistic Messages• “The text directs the reader through the signifieds of the

image, causing him to avoid some and receive others; by means of an often subtle dispatching, it remote- controls him towards a meaning-chosen in advance.”

• This an example of how advertisements use text to explicitly state what they want to consumer to feel or do, instead of implying it through images, exc.

Example in Advertisements

Gunther Kress

Kyle

Taylor

Daniel

The cell and the nucleus • Without an image the writer of a book would have to go into much more detail to

explain things. Showing the viewer they are able to see what would be said in several words.

• “In writing or speaking I have to use a sentence in which two entities – cell and nucleus – are related by a verb, have, indicating a possessive relation: the cell has something (much like: “I have a car, a house, two kids, etc”). I could use a different verb: “In every cell there is a nucleus”. The meaning is now quite different: about existence, there is and location, in. If I draw, I have to place a large dot representing the nucleus somewhere in a circle which represents the cell. Wherever I place it, someone looking at the image is entitled to assume that the nucleus actually is where I have placed it in the circle/cell – whether I intended to or not, or whether it actually belongs there or not.”

How we present things

• Do to technology the manner in which we present things has to constantly change. We must be aware of the audience that we presenting to. If we get the audience wrong the message will not be taken the right way.

How we present things

• “Which mode most appeals to the audience whom I intend to address? Which mode most corresponds to my own interest at this point in shaping the message for communication? Which medium is preferred by my audience? Or by me? How am I positioning myself if I choose this medium or this mode rather than those others?”

Another statement

• “The question it asks is: “what, in this environment, with this kind of audience, with these resources that are available for implementing my design, given these social, economic, ‘political’ constraints, and with my interests now at this moment, is the best way of shaping that which I wish to make, whether as ‘message’ or as any object (of design)?”

Gunther Kress

Frank, Hannah, and MarcGroup 1

Spatiality in Images

The placement on the page in which objects are located can identify their physical relation to or interpretation by the artist.

Nonlinear aspects of images also break free from the constraints of written text.

Kress on media and their interrelation with modes

“Writing as mode and book as medium have shaped western imagination, forms of knowledge, practices of reading; the technology of writing has shaped the book, and the technology of the book has shaped how writing has developed.”

- Gunther Kress

Social Semiotics

“...the “social” in “Social Semiotics” draws attention to the fact that meanings always relate to specific societies and their cultures, and to the meanings of the members of those cultures.”

ex: “grille” vs “grill”

NEXT

Logo: a distinctive symbol of a company,

object, publication, person, service or idea.

Think about:

ethos.

pathos.

logos.

kairos.

style.

audience.

purpose.

context.

metaphor.

story.

delivery.

culture.

transition. Logo readings!The 10 rules…

1) Answer who, what and why.

2) Identify, don’t explain.

3) Understand limitations.

4) Be seductive.

5) Make mnemonic value

6) Pose a question.

7) Design for longevity.

8) Make the logo the foundation of a system.

9) Design for a variety of media.

10) Be strong.

NEXT

Activity:I asked you to have a logo in mind for today. Download it, open it in Photoshop, and make it black and

white.

You are going to recolor the logo.Five ways:

1.Monochrome2.Earth tones

3.One day-glo tone4.Complimentary to primary color5.Colors of that “thing” in nature

For Thursday:

Read for class: Williams non-designers design book Chapter 7, Golombisky & Hagen Chapter 9, “Tips for Designing for Color Blind Users.” and read around on/tinker with Colors on the Web.

For Thursday:

Reading Response: For your reading response, I want you to pick one potential "accent" color to go with our Orange and Browns. Explain to me, as you would a person interested in design but not totally versed in color, why the color you've chosen is a good match.