Visual Rhetoric Progress

[visualrhet]

Gompei’s SophEx Adventure!!!!

After taking all of your suggestions and peer reviews into consideration, we finally finished the final draft of the comic! It took a lot longer than I expected, but I’m thoroughly happy with the results!

One thing that we changed was the perspectives in each shot and panel. Instead of having Gompei in every panel, we decided to spice things up after Prof.’s suggestion! And from that, we were able to diversify each page with a lot more interesting drawings.

Additionally, we took inspiration from Freud for Beginners by Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate. Like how they made collages instead of always having the “standard” comic style. Likewise, I took big inspiration from the statue The Thinker.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thinker

"Gompei’s SophEx Adventure!” pg 2.

Instead of collaging like them, I drew it out to keep the drawing style consistent in the comic. To add some WPI spice, I gave it the SAS shirt and cap!

Overall, to connect it to Scott McCloud’s Show and Tell, our comic uses word-specific, duo-specific, and interdependent relations with words and images. Here are some examples in the comic!

“Gompei’s SophEx Adventure!” pg 2. Word-specific.

“Gompei’s SophEx Adventure!” pg 1. Interdependent.

We were aiming for more interdependent panels, but got swept up in telling the story. I don’t think it took anything away from it though! 

Reflecting back on the quarter, this is by far the funnest (yes, funnest is a word) project in Visual Rhetoric. I was able to engage a lot more with the readings, mostly because it was a lot easier to digest. The comic was a lot more flexible too. It probably took the most time, but with the finished product, I didn’t mind too much.

We have one more week of the quarter, so let’s finish it out strong guys! Let me know your thoughts!

[visualrhet]

Gompei’s Tour

With our new project, I found it really daunting to even start it. I had little to no info about SophEx, and from what I heard, it was a complete flop. I remember it was brought up at the mental health awareness town hall as being a lazy attempt at giving the class of 2024. With all that, I knew that painting this all in a good light was going to be a toughie.

To give it a more personal feel, we emulated the narration that Scott McCloud’s comics had, replacing him in Show and Tell and Brian Rakowski in Google Chrome with Gompei! We thought it’d be best to have him because Gompei’s pretty iconic to WPI, and he’s a very neutral-to-positive-lighted character in the community. He’s also timeless. Additionally, we thought that it’d be more like a story, which is something McCloud discussed in Show and Tell. 

Before actually beginning the story boarding process, we first had to figure out what information to put in the comic. After filtering it all out, we began! To set the scene, we started out by giving context to why SophEx was created. Then we went into the topic communities and the goals. From there, we finally talked about the events that happened and related them to the goals SophEx wanted to pursue! We are still drafting up the ending, but we plan to conclude with the impact that SophEx has had on the community. We’re unsure of how we’re going to do that, but hopefully there’s some data or info on the WPI instagram page that will show us! Let me know what you guys think and if y’all have any ideas!

Anyways! Drawings are still in the works, and we’re still polishing the language, but the rough draft going a lot better than I expected!

[visualrhet]

The Importance in Size and Font

I was on my way to class when I walked past the fountain. There, people were selling bracelets, at least, I’m pretty sure they were. They had a small piece of printer paper with a mesh of words in like, 12 point font, and at the top, a line with bolded big words “Bracelet for $2.” I was intrigued by what it was for, but I didn’t have the time to chat and find out.

It wasn’t until I was scrolling through my Instagram feed that I found the purpose of the bracelets: spreading mental health awareness. It was then when I realized that though they are in our everyday lives, fonts are really important to advertisements and entertainment. If the sign were more intriguing, it might have made me more inclined to stop by after class to take a look. 

Screenshot of the WPI Instagram page @wpi

Gary Hustwit and others that produced Helvetica may argue that less is more, but in this case, if the font were bigger, more colorful, and/or more interesting, I think it would have attracted a lot more people. Or maybe it could at least be more legible.

I think it’s especially important since the cause is for mental health, a huge running issue on our campus right now. It’s important that every bit of communication is effective and thought-through, and to be honest, it looked a little lazy and hastily brought together. A little performative. I might be overthinking things, so let me know your guys’ opinions about it.

[visualrhet]

The Rhetoric in Red (Taylor’s Version)

Taylor Swift recently re-released Red, arguably her most iconic album with hits like “We are Never Getting Back Together,” “I Knew You Were Trouble,” and “22,” and everyone and their mom is talking about it. Something that I really thought fitted the last unit was the choice to not have any title on the album cover. With Taylor’s older covers, there was always the title as well as her name, but I think that Taylor or her marketing team have realized that she has become iconic enough with the red lipstick, blonde hair, bangs, and general aesthetic that there isn’t a need to have any words on the covers. And slowly, they got rid of her name on the covers and the title more recently. People already know. Especially for the re-release, the original cover was pretty well-known, and as Taylor was gaining more listeners, this photo became all the more recognizable.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e8/Taylor_Swift_-_Red.png 

In her new album cover, there’s a lot of hints and parallels back to the original one, like the off-camera glance, similar lighting, and the warm filter. 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpitchfork.com%2Freviews%2Falbums%2Ftaylor-swift-red-taylors-version%2F&psig=AOvVaw3OI7vSOfVzpmRRJfzumnSJ&ust=1637093414446000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCPDk2oXjm_QCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

There seems to be a trend of this with other artists as they grow in popularity. Even with the Beatles, one of the most iconic bands, Abbey Road’s cover has no words. I find it pretty interesting how these covers evolved very similarly. The picture itself is all the album needs to market towards its audience. In our Arnheim reading, he talks about how pictures represent a lower abstractness than themselves (138), but he also states how music is the highest form of abstractness, so I’m a little confused on how to connect that part. I’ll reflect on it a little more. Let me know if you guys have any ideas.

Also, I wanted to note the re-releasing having the added (Taylor’s Version), but I’ll save that for another time.

[visualrhet]

Typefaces and Handlettering

I’ve been interested in calligraphy and handlettering for some time now, and after reading Paul C Gutjahr and Megan L Benton’s Illuminating Letters: Typography & Literary Interpretation and watching Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica, it really got me thinking about how typefaces really do influence our perception of the world.

It was on my mind when I was making the font for the spooky Polar-Express-esque escape room. This font was pretty out of my comfort zone with calligraphy because I’m used to cursive or minimalistic writing, but taking the time to add in serifs and drawing out jagged or abrupt lines really made me more intentional with my usual writing.

Helvetica was on my mind a lot when designing the font because it was easy to watch people on the screen to talk about the intricacies and the details in a font that is needed to be considered, and it took a lot more time than I initially expected, but I’m very satisfied with my results.

[visualrhet]

Rhetoric and Grammar of Images

Walking down the Boston streets that towered with skyscrapers, I came across a red neon sign in the shape of a simplistic heart. My immediate reaction was “Oh! That’s cute! I should go check it out.” I quickly realized after that the logo was of CVS. Reflecting on that now, it was probably what the designers were going for: something welcoming.

In this week’s reading, Image-Music-Text by Roland Barthes and Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design by Gunther Kress and Theo can Leeuwen, they discuss the intricacies of image in relation to what messages they sent and how they can be used alongside words to better convey their meaning.

Like I briefly did with the sign, Barthes analyzed an advertisement in his piece, going through the subtext of the images displayed and how they enhance the words. He came to the conclusion that contrary to what many linguists believe,  images don’t limit meaning from its obscurity but rather, enhance it. 

Likewise, Kress and van Leeuwen recognize the importance of visual rhetoric, especially in education. With images incorporated, messages will be more immersive, relatable, and imaginable, just like I thought with the CVS logo.