Full Description
Written by two highly experienced teachers in the field of document design, Designing Visual Language, 2/e offers useful strategies and tools for document design of all types. A chief goal of the text is to enable students to extend the rhetorical approach they employ in writing and editing courses to the creation of various forms of visual communication. The text focuses on the kinds of situations and practical documents that occur in the workplace and blends this focus with a rhetorical approach that ties design to the audience, purpose, and context of messages.
Contents
Foreword by the Series Editor
Preface
PART 1 INTEGRATED COMMUNICATION
Chapter 1: Rhetorical Background
Introduction to Visual Rhetoric
It Depends: The Importance of the Rhetorical Situation
A Scenario for Applying Visual Rhetoric
How Fred's Document Responds Visually to the Rhetorical Situation
Large-Scale Responses to Audience, Purpose, and Context
Local-Level Responses to Audience, Purpose, and Context
Summing Up Fred's Design Decisions
Visual/Verbal Cognates
Arrangement
Emphasis
Clarity
Conciseness
Tone
Ethos
Interdependence of the Cognate Strategies
Process Example-Mapleton Center
Understanding the Rhetorical Situation
Invention
Revision
Visual Editing
What Can We Learn from Fred's Process?
Conventions-What Readers Expect
Verbal Conventions
Visual Conventions
Visual Discourse Communities
Fred Noonan's Use of Conventions
Some Basic Principles of Conventions
Acquiring the Language of Visual Conventions
Conclusion
Notes
References
Exercises
Chapter 2: Perception and Design
Introduction to Perception Issues
Perception Requires Thinking
We See Images within a Visual Field
Gestalt Principles of Design
Figure—Ground Contrast
Degrading Figure—Ground with Visual Noise
Grouping: Making the Parts Cohere
Patterns: Creating Groups across the Communication
Using Gestalt Principles to Respond to the Rhetorical Situation
Empirical Research as a Design Tool
Universal Research
Contextual Research
Conclusion
Notes
References
Exercises
Assignments
Chapter 3: Visual Analysis
Introduction to Visual Analysis
The Visual Vocabulary of Professional Communication
ATaxonomy for Visual Vocabulary
Intra-Level Design: Linear Components
Inter-Level Design: Fields and Nonlinear Components
Extra-Level Design: Data Displays, Pictures, Icons, and Symbols
Supra-Level Design: The Whole Communication
Each Communication Uniquely Combines Elements from the Matrix
Analyzing Visual Vocabulary Rhetorically
Analysis of
