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made by Curtis Newbold (The Visual Communication Guy)
some graphic representation of graphic principles
What exactly comes with a Syracuse Law education? And why is it so valuable?
This is an infographic; this particular one is about the value of a law degree from SU. An infographic is a graphic/visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly. Infographics can improve cognition by using graphics to enhance the human visual system's ability to see patterns and trends--by making them stand out.
This is an example of an instructional text from ITS on setting up SUMail on android devices. Notice that it provides a clear title, overview of steps and objective of what the reader/user will know how to do at the end. It uses verbs/action language that is direct that are accompanied by illustrative graphics/images to aid in understanding.
Official website of the Office of Admissions at Syracuse University
This is an example of an informative text from our own University website; it introduces Discovery study abroad programs. It informs--it tells about something by introducing a subject and developing it with facts/relevant information.
the multiple media of texts
In our first week we read Anne Wysocki’s “The Multiple Media of Texts: How onscreen and paper texts incorporate words, images, and other media” to open our thinking to how we notice and respond to genre. Wysocki draws our attention to visuality--how it communicates genre, sets up our expectations, and guides our reading/interacting. She argues that all texts are visual and rhetorical--there are deliberate design choices that we can read with attention to in order to reveal the cultural and historical influences.
Overview of points:
all texts are visual in nature
a text’s visual nature gives a clue to its genre
a text’s visual components perform important rhetorical and persuasive work
cultural attitudes to visual elements change over time
choices in visual presentation have to be seen through cultural frameworks
composing a text means making deliberate choices for how to shape the page or screen to direct the audience. (123-126)
Some selected concepts:
the visual presentation of a page or screen gives you an immediate sense of its genre
genres have visual conventions that help us understand function and purpose
the visual elements and arrangement of a text perform persuasive work
we look for suggestions and signals in texts
the visual aspects of texts are to be understood not simply in terms of physiology but in terms of social context
composing a visual text involves choosing strategies for shaping what is on a page or screen to direct a reader/viewer/browser’s attentions, within the context of other texts
type, shapes, color, photographs, drawings and paintings, charts and graphs, animations, visual transitions, video and sound—these elements all show relevance, create tone, persuade; reveal audiences, contexts, arguments
how can we see genre working on us?: “Sometimes imagining a page with a replacement or change helps us see much more clearly what the page is intended to achieve, because it helps us denaturalize the page and see its elements as choices that could have been otherwise. What do the author/designer’s choices of visual strategies tell you about her/his conception of the audience for this page/screen?” (14)
genres become “invisible”; our expectations because of their familiarity do the looking: “I am always helped in analyzing visual and interactive rhetoric by asking how the overall effect of piece would be change were its elements changed; imagining change helps me see more readily the effects of the original, where sometimes the various elements and their relationships seem to fit together so well as to be natural, unchosen and unstrategized.” (28)
a good text is not just a replication of generic form: “To build your own compositions can thus be a matter of looking hard at and analysing the genre that is most appropriate for your ends and then copying what you observe, modifying it to fit the particular rhetorical situation. This is not as easy as it sounds, however, because the level of detail on pages and screens is fine: it is one thing to build pages or screens that roughly match what is expected; it is quite another to build a composition that can flawlessly insert itself into the ongoing conversations and expectations to which our eyes and ears have become so subtly accustomed through long and usually undiscussed exposure.” (30)
what about texts that defy genre expectations?: “But what about making visual and interactive compositions that do not so readily fit audiences’ expectations, compositions that ask audiences to question, first, how they came to have their expectations and, then, the limitations and constraints of those expectations? What about making compositions that ask their audiences, in other words, to see and interact differently with texts, to consider arguments outside their usual experience? How do you persuade your readers/viewers that your composition is serious, worth reading, and, in fact, can be read?” (30)
dynamics of design exercise: week four
The long and short of it--there isn’t one. We will work on an image/graphic exercise next week (five), and will reduce the data visualization exercises (six and seven) into one that will be a part of your infographic for the project. So, hopefully a win-win.
That being said, you’ll still be thinking about visuals this week. I am modifying the collection/curation exercise this week to think more specifically about your projects.
What I’d like you to do is to modify your gathering for the week; instead of collecting anything of interest, look for examples of texts that can serve as models for what you want to make for the instructive, informative, and infographic resources you’re creating. They can be models in terms of content (i.e. they have to do with what you’ll be creating a resource about) or based on design/form (you like they way they look/communicate).
There is no set number of found texts, but you must have one for each type--instructive, informative, and infographic (so 3+). For the reflection/framing, you are simply describing what it is about each found text that is appealing to you as a model and how you would like it to inform what you design/write. If you would like, you can write these as annotation directly onto the individual posts themselves (found an interesting infographic image; save it/reblog it to make a post; add notes/a description about what it helps me visualize for my project).
dynamics of design exercise: week three
Find a text that fits the form of one you are interested in. It doesn’t matter what it’s purpose is per se, you are interested in the form—a booklet, brochure, webpage, podcast, video, flier, poster, etc.
Please note and account for (record your responses) to the following:
Who do you think the audience is and their motivation for accessing this text? Based on what tells you this?
Are you able to “read” it (read being abstract because you might have to look differently or watch or listen)?
What meaning or content do you take away from it? How do the features of the text impact your reading either by guiding or obstructing?
Using the best practices for creating accessible digital texts, assess the text on (all that are applicable):
layout and design
interactivity
images
audio
video
Please note and account for your responses.
This post can take the form of notes and needn’t be in paragraph form. Please link to or embed the text you are analyzing.
to think on:
This video --”Searching for Gravitational Waves News Conference at Syracuse University”-- is currently on our University homepage. If I click on the link, I can watch and listen to the conference. But, there aren’t captions on the video or a transcript of what people are saying. At the conference itself, when it happened, though, you’ll noticed they had interpreters. It isn’t required that you watch this video; it’s to draw attention to how communication is accessible (or not).
a kidd’s guide to graphic design
[image from deirdre spencer dot com]
Chip Kidd’s introduction to graphic design is a wonderful resource--even though this isn’t a graphic design course per se. There is much to take away that helps us to think about information/document design and writing-designing as interwoven.
What follows are sort of like lecture notes that work to point out concepts that we will carry forward with us in our work, in our analysis, and in our discussions.
Kidd’s framing of graphic design is directly applicable to us--he frames it as problem solving. Further, he explains that “the thing to learn about graphic design problem solving is that the best solution can usually be found in the best definition of the problem itself” (2). For us, this relates to our consideration of rhetorical analysis that seeks to understand audience, context, and purpose (broadly--each one is more complex).
He reminds that everything--everything--needs to be designed. And needs to be designed for a variety of purposes/functions/uses.
How does graphic design work?
Graphic design works “Through visual and typographic components that, when put in the right combinations, can literally get you to start or stop doing something.” (5)
It affects us (works on us/against us/with us) all of the time. We understand our worlds through the objects/texts/processes that serve as our interfaces to them.
Do add the form vocabulary to your word bank; not only will these concepts help us to see and discuss, they can also be sued at dinner parties to impress your friends.
Kidd’s description of re-learning to see like a baby (22)--taking in visuals without automatically ascribing meaning--is of interest to us in terms of wonder. This class, these collection & curation blog posts ask you to wander/wonder and then make meaning of what you see. In this section too to note is cultural ways of seeing/reading that become invisible processes to us. Try looking at a text in another language, something non-Western, something pre-Roman or not Eurocentric. Try just seeing.
And with just seeing--not making the move to ascribe meaning with language/words--Kidd gets into color theory by opening with the emotional power colors have that can’t quite be put into words (61). Think about if you have ever felt an emotionally response to something you see but can’t quite describe why. Think about how you’re seeing.
Speaking of color theory, check out this color scheme picker
Color communicates, and so too does typography--not the words the type spells out, but the shape, size, thickness, boldness, and spacing of and between letters themselves.
Look back/again more closely at the type faces that Kidd highlights (80-81)--look at the connection between the type and its name, and between the type and who/what created it. Type is impacted/influenced by the time, location, culture, technology, etc. it is situated within. “Typography itself is its own language about language.” (87)
At this time, I’d like to make a public service announcement that if you have never downloaded and installed a font on your computer that doesn’t come as standard--you are typing in black and white TV when you could be typing in technicolor.
Kidd moves from principles of graphic design to the fundamental question of design--what are you trying to communicate? What is it trying to do? What is it’s purpose? Quoting architect Louis Sullivan, Kidd states “form follows function”; purpose = function.
Kidd then gives us an equation for graphic design: content + form + type = graphic design. But, he brings to our attention that we’ve forgotten concept--our idea of what to do (104). Concept, he Kidd describes, is the bridge between form and content.
content -- concept -- form
How do we find concept? Kidd raises the question, “Where do ideas come from? How can you create them?…The easy answer is that you let the problem itself give you ideas. The harder answer is that ideas come from around the world all around you, and you have fro try and recognize them.” (104)
And thus my idea for the collection, curation & creation blog comes back into focus--we get concepts from observing concepts. Kidd gives us conceptual terms of imagery [literal and suggestive], illusion, metaphor, visual flavor, sincerity and irony to notice how we interpret and can design interpretation.
The takeaway? You are a designer--you already were. But now you have some schema/tools/vocabulary.
dynamics of design exercise: week two
Find or take an image of a movie cover/poster or book cover that you love—and I mean love. You have read this book front to back and back again or have watched this movie without blinking. In a few sentences, describe what this book/movie means to you—both in terms of why you like it and what it communicates/represents to you.
Choose one of Chip Kidd’s form concepts (on page 20 of the text) to change the existing cover or to create a new cover. It can be done with any materials/media you feel comfortable working in.
In a paragraph, what changes in what/how the cover communicates? How does the concept impact meaning making? This can be folded into the reflection/framing post that asks you to account for:
the process/tools of doing the exercise
any issues/design flaws/shortcomings
what your intended meaning/idea was
how effective you think the result is
anything you would modify/change
[all posters for “The Exorcist” designed by Bill Gold. the first two images are described as early alternates in the poster’s design, with the third image being the one that was used/made iconic with the movie.]
Slack, the team messaging app that's the hot thing of the moment among startups, has seen explosive growth in the last year with over one million people no
a pretty detailed exploration of the functions/capabilities of Slack
Table Of Contents Introduction §1–What's the deal with tumblr? §2–Let's make a tumblr! §3–How do we use our tumblr? §4–What do tumblrs look like? §5–How to make our tumblr look fancy §6–Why is the search feature so bad on tumblr? §7–Tools for managing your tumblr §8–Going forward with your tumblr §9–Editing your tumblr’s theme Introduction…
a bit more detailed guide to beginning to use Tumblr. this one explains/illustrates more of the features with the use of helpful screenshots to walk through the processes.
Depending on how you want to utilize the platform, this guide will help you move from a Tumblr novice to power blogger.
a nice overview/introduction on using/navigating Tumblr
the website / portfolio/ and media lectures & messages of Chip Kidd
definitely worth looking/listening through
[infographic from -- http://thinkerthoughtinfo.tumblr.com/]
a really nice guide to constructing a response/comment in discussions
[infographic from -- http://thinkerthoughtinfo.tumblr.com/]
a really nice guide to your discussion posts on the readings for our Slack channels
while we aren’t reading Cooper, these concepts from her ecologies of writing are very much relevant to us in information and document design in thinking about the interconnected nature of form | content. there are considerations & consequences of audience, purpose, context in how a text is read, circulated, and made use of.