For the previous two assignments, I have analyzed typography, which has proved very interesting to me. However, this is the last blog, so I thought I would try a different media.
This is an advertisement from a non-profit organization in reference to second hand smoke. 


First off, lets begin by analyzing the figures and symbolism in the picture. At first glance, I was guilty for thinking this was a sad and simple photo. Take a look at the hand with the cigarette. Painted red nails, feminine look; this is clearly not the little boys hand. Whether it represents a mother figure or a sister is irrelevant. The point is that someone in this little boy's life is smoking and he is receiving the tail end of that.
This picture represents an intense visual argument. Because there are limited words in the picture, the viewer is forced to gather the message from the image at hand. And what I gathered from this visual argument is an extreme pathos persuasion. Any moral human would feel terrible for his child and his situation. No one wants to see a 6-year old smoking a cigarette. I think that is EXACTLY the point of this advertisement. 
In addition to the pathos appeal, I gather sometime significant from the black and white effect on the photo. Lets face it, black and white suddenly makes everything a little more serious. Why? Perhaps it is because the color is gone. Perhaps because it makes the smoke stand more significant to the photo. I think the major reason though is simply because black and white represents a different mood, a different attitude. Black and white can capture a romantic moment, a beautiful moment, but also a serious and sad moment. I think black and white could not have been more appropriate seeing as this picture needs to represent a depressing and low point for this child and to hit the guilt nerves of anyone guilty of doing this "crime."
Lastly, I just want to briefly touch on the text at the bottom right. Something about text intrigues me and deserves attention. This text may seem insignificant, but because the image is so powerful, the text does not need to be so forthcoming. I think the subtleness of the text is perfect; it forces the viewer to grasp the message without reading it right in front of them. I love that! I also love how the text simply says "Stop Second Hand Smoking." Right after the viewer sees that its like, Boom. Message completely understood. The simpleness of the powerful message is conveyed perfectly with minimal text and maximal image use.
Did this image pick at your heart? Are you more aware of the effects of second hand smoke now? If you answered yes to either of these questions, the image did it's job. This visual argument was perfect to argue the negatives of second hand smoke (are there any positives?) and to appeal to the emotion of the reader. In my opinion, message received! 









0

Add a comment

In class, we discussed Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics," which is really the seminal work in well, understanding comics.  McCloud discusses just about every, and any aspect of comics that can be conceived, and our discussion on 'gutters' was interesting, as I hadn't read "Understanding Comics" in some ten years.

As an avid comics fan (buff?), I had always been told that Neal Adams was one of the genre-defining comics-book artists of his day (which happened to precede me by some 15 years).  As you can see in the examples to the right, his use of panel arrangement was completely "outside-the-box," to coin a phrase that came up in class.  That is not the interesting part, however.

Trap. The combination of the genres of trance and rap usually through sound mixing and editing, has become a staple of parties and festival shows. They share similar use of synth, heavy base and spoken words to create music. But what interests me out of these is the artwork and how the artwork mimics the mixing of themes between rap and techno much in the same way the music does.

Arguably one of the most recognizable symbols in the Western cultural lexicon, or even that of Eastern cultures, is the silhouette of Mickey Mouse. Popularized in the late 1920s by a series of short films, America’s favorite rodent has come to represent the Walt Disney Studios and the Disney corporation at large.

The above comic by Robert Berry appears in his Ulysses “Seen” adaptation of the James Joyce novel Ulysses.

We watched "The Machine is Us/ing Us" and had an interesting class discussion on whether it was a scholarly work or not. It was not, perhaps, “scholarly”; but it was an argument, and it made me think about the sociology of internet communication.

During our in-class discussion of Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art," the composer brought up gutters, the space in between frames of a comic (or newspaper, cartoon or other media).  In a comic, as McCloud states in the image to the right, gutters "play host to the magic and mystery that are at the very heart of comics."  These gutters are vital, and can serve as more than a space to let the reader's mind wander.

When we talked in class about usability and the internet, it sounded like the conclusion as to what makes a usable website is simplicity. Creating a website to serve a very obvious purpose is the key to usability. But even when a site is usable, there are aesthetics that make a website a more enjoyable experience for the user. Color, formatting, and graphic elements can enhance usability by making a website visually appealing.

In Vitaly Friedman's article "10 Usability Nightmares You Should Be Aware Of," the first item listed is  problematic hidden login links on websites. Friedman uses Backpack as an example because the login link is very small and placed right underneath a block of text that looks like an advertisement, rather than placing the login somewhere else on the page where it can be easily located.

-->

Of the recent readings for this course, I feel most compelled to comment on the writings of Jakob Nielsen. I had heard of him before, touted as the leading expert of usability. A great deal of the discussion in class was devoted to some apparent contradictions between his ethos and one of his now defunct websites. However, I noticed contradictions on the very page we were asked to look at for class.

Professor John Logie teaches us that comics have a place in academia. He teaches it in Visual Rhetoric. Why not? Comics are visual and they are graphic and they are certainly full of rhetoric. Comics teach us to engage ourselves with the comic we are viewing, on our own time, in our own space. Professor Logie teaches that Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" is an essential book to do just that, understand comics.
Blog Archive
Contributors
Loading
Dynamic Views theme. Powered by Blogger. Report Abuse.