Visual Rhetoric: How Imagery Persuades

From magazines to logos to the TV and film

we watch, we're surrounded

by visual media.

You might be shocked to learn that most

of it is trying to persuade

you in one way or another.

First things first, it usually

helps to start with a definition.

If rhetoric describes the way a written

text moves us to feel or think or do

something, what you may be

wondering is visual rhetoric?

Well, it's the way a text is trying to

move you to feel or think or do something.

Only instead of words,

or often in addition to words,

it's through a visual medium.

Visual rhetoric is made of the same stuff

as your everyday garden variety rhetoric,

but it employs pictures or video,

or even just the elements of visual and

graphic design to persuade its audience.

Visual rhetoric is made of the same

building blocks as textual rhetoric.

Ethos, logos, and pathos are still

the tools that visual rhetoric uses.

The addition of visual language

to the text means it can communicate its

rhetorical purpose a lot

faster and more efficiently,

and the visual elements can significantly

change the impact of the message.

Take this image, for instance.

In both examples here,

the written content is the same,

but the difference in font very quickly

communicates whether those words are

meant as an endearment or as a threat.

To put it another way, the visual elements

change how we interpret the same text.

Obviously, typography can

change the meaning of a message.

But what are some of the other elements

in the visual rhetorical toolbox?

The primary elements of visual rhetoric

are spacing, value, color,

line, scale, and texture.

If you studied art or graphic design,

you might recognize these as

the main elements of design.

Pretty much any image can be

analyzed using these ideas.

That's not to say that you have to be

an expert in art to understand

how these elements work.

But the truth is, you already have a lot

of expertise in recognizing

these qualities.

Let me prove it to you.

Take this image, for example.

This is a screen grab from a film.

Even if you don't recognize the film,

I bet you can tell what genre it belongs

to, because those elements of design

communicate a lot of information

that you're already decoding constantly.

In terms of spacing,

look at how thick the woods are,

so dense that not much sunlight

makes it to the ground.

The trees tower over the building.

You can infer something about

the relationships between

the people in the image too

because of their spacing,

they're standing close, so they're

probably friends, not strangers.

And you can likely guess that the two

who are embracing are a couple.

Value has a lot to do

with contrast and hue.

In this frame, the clearing is brighter

than the woods around it,

so it has a lighter value.

The front door, though,

is almost totally cloaked in darkness,

which makes us feel uncertain or nervous.

We don't like to enter a space

that we can't see well.

Color certainly relates to value.

There are no bright poppy colors here,

and the woods and the ground and the cabin

are all natural colors,

greens and browns and tans.

The group is costumed in colors

that aren't natural;

blues and mustard yellow and tan

and white, so they stand out.

You can tell that they're

not part of the landscape.

Also note how everything

in the image is muted.

It's all kind of dark.

You can pretty much guess

this isn't a comedy.

Line refers to how the elements of an

image draw your eye in certain directions.

Here, the line of the roof and the bottom

of the porch are the strongest lines,

and horizontal lines often convey

stability and groundedness,

although here the other elements are

undercutting a sense of stability.

Because everything else in the frame,

from the trees to the utility pole

to the characters,

is oriented in a vertical direction,

this makes the cabin itself stick out.

The contrast adds to how it makes us

feel uneasy, which brings us to scale.

You can tell it's not a big cabin,

it's single story, and it's dwarfed by the

trees that extend up and out of the frame.

But it still takes up most of the shot,

and the people in front of it

seem dwarfed by its visual mass.

They're also isolated within

that clearing, which adds to the sense

of isolation that we can infer

from this wooded location.

And finally, texture.

Because it's the lightest value,

the dappled light is one of the most

obvious textures in this image.

The way that it filters through the trees

subconsciously tells us

that these woods keep going.

The shingled roof on the top of the cabin

is old and unkempt, and the texture of it

echoes the texture of the dead

leaves in the clearing on the ground.

So, against all of that organic,

natural texture, the characters stand out.

And since this is the first time

that they're seeing the cabin,

all these elements combine to make

it feel like they don't belong.

Everything in the image is

building to be a visual warning.

All these elements are combining

to tell us that the genre this belongs

to is, as you probably guessed it, horror.

Specifically, this is an image

from 2010's Cabin in the Woods.

If you're a horror fan,

you might have spotted that this cabin

bears a strong resemblance

to the cabin from Evil Dead.

That's not on accident.

The film is making a visual reference

to a beloved cult horror film.

There are other visual references

throughout the film to other horror movies

like Friday the 13th,

Halloween, and Hellraiser.

And those references are absolutely part

of the visual rhetoric

of Cabin in the Woods.

It's persuading the viewer that it's

part of the horror genre tradition.

Okay, here's another example.

Even if you don't recognize this show,

what can you tell about

it from this image?

The bright and poppy colors,

the charming buildings,

the cobblestone street,

and the warm tone all combine to tell us,

even without any other context,

that this is probably a comedy.

In fact, it's a still from The Good Place,

which I might argue is

one of the best comedies.

One more example.

How about this?

The business like attire,

the fluorescent light fixtures overhead,

the brick walls, this big white

board with evidence laid out on it.

These are all visual elements

of the police procedural.

In this case, it's the TV show Castle,

which centers on a police detective

and a mystery writer

who team up to solve crimes.

It's on the funnier end of the police

procedural spectrum,

but the moody lighting and the somber

colors would keep you from mistaking it

for, say, Brooklyn Nine-Nine,

which is very much in the comedy realm.

As you analyze visual media,

remember that just like with textual

rhetoric, the same elements

of the rhetorical situation apply genre,

author, purpose, audience,

argument, and effect.

Like in the examples from film and TV

that I showed you,

these aspects of the visual text help us

identify the rhetorical impact of the text. And

when they're combined with imagery

that evokes an appeal to ethos,

pathos, or logos,

we can then start to parse the persuasive

argument that visual texts make.

Being able to spot how rhetoric functions

in a visual text not only makes you more

critically engaged

with the world around you.

When you can officially analyze the visual

rhetoric in a text,

then you can apply those principles

to creation of your own visual

texts to make your own arguments.

Understanding visual rhetoric makes you

a more persuasive writer and creator,

which makes you a more

effective communicator.

Whether you're creating a resume

to convince someone to hire you,

or designing an invitation to a haute

couture or Halloween party,

or pitching a proposal to your boss,

being visually rhetorically savvy

will help you achieve your goal.