Visual Rhetoric
For the purposes of this assignment, "visual rhetoric" means the integration of verbal and visual aspects of the document. Thus instead of words working by themselves (traditional rhetoric), or visual design by itself, words and graphics work together for communicative effect.
The more these aspects work together in an integrated and unified way, the more effective their "rhetoric" will be.
Some examples of text and visual elements used together:
- Linear text, with graphic support (graphics used symbolically) Cartoons of the 80's
Minimal use of text; graphic elements carry "weight of communication" Why U2 is the Greatest Band in the WorldNote: In these examples, graphics become progressively more important. But it doesn't matter whether there's "more" graphics than text, or vice versa, or even that all the visual elements are graphic or pictorial. What matters is that verbal text and visual aspects work together.
Some principles of visual and verbal elements working together:
Balance and proportion in individual screens/pages
Consistency throughout the document (These can aid consistency--Design template; Slide Master; "insert duplicate slide")
Navigation merges with the design
Hypermedia
This is the dimension of multimedia linked together in a digital environment; it involves graphics, possibly sound and video; hypertext is a subcategory under this rubric. So with hypermedia, text, sound, graphics, even movies can be linked together.
The degree of strength in this area again depends on appropriateness and integration. Any hypertext, graphics, sounds, video that are used should work toward helping the reader/viewer make sense of the message or include information or experiences that can't be obtained in other ways. Pictures and sounds for their own sake don't necessarily do this; the main idea or ideas have to come first and tie hypermedia together. Clipart is usually so generalized and abstract that is is not very useful in contributing to particular meaning.