Visual Rhetoric: A Words and Pictures Mashup

Isn’t this photo striking?

What does it make you think about?

The two painted hands are working together to create the shape and look of Earth…
… human hands to represent world peace.

World Peace.
Doesn’t that have a nice ring to it?

Visual Rhetoric Defined

Visual Rhetoric is using a visual prompt in a document (such as a photograph or graphic illustration, and choices of color and font in the document), which conveys a message through the use of picture alone (like the hands forming Earth above) or with pictures and text. On their page for Visual Rhetoric, the Purdue Owl Online Writing Lab puts it this way:

“Just as writers choose their words and organize their thoughts based on any number of rhetorical considerations, the author of such visual documents thinks no differently.” (Purdue Owl)

All around you, in every magazine, on every website, you can find visual cues that speak to you of the products they are selling or the ideas they are conveying.

Examples of Visual Rhetoric

In this 1950s advertisement for Chanel No. 5 perfume above, Marilyn Monroe seems
to be whispering to you: “Look how beautiful I am in this picture of me
wearing Chanel No. 5. You’ll be beautiful if you wear it, too.”

The illustration above conveys the message that Mac is more streamlined,
cleaner, and requires less maintenance than a Windows PC does.

Visual Rhetoric is communicating your thoughts and ideas with visuals instead of words alone.

You get the picture.
*wink*

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REFERENCES:

Marilyn Monroe photo. (1950s). Chanel Perfume: Paris, France. Retrieved from website: Watchesonnet.com

PC/Mac illustration. (2011) My first Blog: Visual Rhetoric. Retrieved from website: My First Blog

Purdue Owl. (2016). Purdue University Online Writing Lab: Visual Rhetoric. Retrieved from website: Purdue Owl Online Writing Lab

World/Hands photo. (2011). HomePeace.com: An Intentional Living Quotable. Retrieved from website: Homepeace.com

What is Visual Rhetoric?

The short answer: To communicate an idea or concept through visual media such as pictures, art, or design elements.

But Visual Rhetoric is so much more than just pictures.
It’s using a visual prompt to persuade viewers to act or respond a certain way to your communication.
It’s choosing the right colors, fonts, and spacing in documents to manipulate how your reader will interpret your meaning.
And it’s choosing or creating a particular visual to convey meaning and feeling.

Visual Rhetoric is all around us.

Learning to interpret meaning in what you see in the world is the first step to visual literacy.