Rhetoric + Typography: Creative Interaction in Modern Communication (Trummel)

“As the means by which written communication is conveyed, typography is in many respect, analogous to classical rhetoric” (p. 124).

“One dimension in which the typographer can exercise his or her freedom is in the degree of abstraction used to render the subject-replicating the appearance of the physical world with meticulous faithfulness or designing completely nonmimetic shapes, which reflect human experience by pure visual expression and spatial relations” (p. 126).

“Subtle complexity can be obtained by combining geometrically simple shapes; the combinations, in turn, may be held together by a simplifying orderliness” (p. 126).

Shape

• “Whenever one perceives shape, consciously or unconsciously, one assumes it to represent something, and thereby to be the form of the content. Thus, a shape is never perceived as the form of just one particular thing, but always of a kind of thing” (p. 128).

Perception (An Looking through and looking at)

• “An observer sees the dynamics of visual patterns as genuine properties of the perceived objects themselves” (p. 126).
• “From tracings of eye movements, it has been proved that viewers explore a visual scene by roaming about irregularly and concentrating on the centers of major concerns [ 5 ] . Seeing is essentially a means of practical orientation, of determining with the eyes what a certain thing is. Seeing means grasping some outstanding features of objects. A few outstanding features not only determine the identity of a perceived object, but also make it appear as a complete, integrated pattern. This applies not only to the image of the object as a whole, but also to any particular part on which the attention is focused” (p. 126).

Gestalt Theory + Rhetoric

• “The same is true for the typographer. His
  codification is the selection and arrangement of type
  which. as it perceptually affects the whole disseminative
  process. must be considered at the conceptual stage as an
  integral part of the whole” (p. 124).
• “Gestalt also refers to a body of scientific principles that were derived mainly from experiments in sensory perception” (p. 124). 
• “These principles have been adopted as the basis of all modern typography and graphic design. The rhetorical connection is that, before one can identify an individual element, the total composition makes a statement that the typographer must comprehend”  (p. 124).

Persuasion

• “the rhetorician must use, as his mode of persuasion and argument, written or visual forms that can be comprehended by such audiences. The visual form of a rhetorical work is not arbitrary, and it is indispensable as a precise interpreter of the idea the work is meant to express”  (p. 125).

Emotion and Pleasure

• “With speech, thought is transmitted by language, in an effort to prove or disprove, to arouse emotion, or to maximize or minimize aspects of the presentation”
• “Patterns are built around visual metaphors through the fusion of heterogeneous content on the basis of visible resemblance” (p. 125).

Balance

• “Although visual patterns are characterized by movement from left to right that introduces an element of imbalance because the weight (blackness) is distributed unevenly, they can be made unambiguous by stabilizing the interrelations between the forces in the visual system to create a state of equilibrium and make it appear livelier” (p. 126).

Dynamic

• “Graphic design does not deal with a designer’s subjective and arbitrary additions to what he sees” (p. 127).

Style

• “To be appropriate, style must sometimes be toned down, and at other times heightened; a speaker who uses the very words that are in keeping with a particular disposition will reproduce the corresponding character: a rustic and an educated man will not say the same things nor speak in the same way. Repetitions of words and phrases have a dramatic effect” (p. 127).

Form

• “The form of a prose composition should be neither metrical nor destitute of rhythm. The metrical form destroys the hearer’s trust by its artificial appearance, and at the same time it diverts his attention, making him watch for metrical recurrences” (p. 128).

 

Chapter 6: Page, Mastering Type

Grid (Gestalt + Relationship + Movement)

• “A grid is essentially the skeletal structure of a page”
• Standard elements

1. Margins (CSS property = margin)
2. Columns (CSS property = float OR position)
3. Alleys
4. Gutters (CSS property = margin)
5. Rows (CSS selector = p, h1, h2, h3, h4, li, div) OR (CSS property and value = display:block)
6. Modules

• Types of grids
  • Manuscript
  • Column

Gestalt Theory

1. Proximity
2. Similarity
3. Continuity
4. Closure
5. Figure/Ground

Relationship

1. Balance
   • Symmetrical
   • Asymmetrical
   • Unity
   • Contrast (interest and emphasis)

Movement (Gestalt + Relationship)

1. Repetition
2. Rhythm
3. Modular
4. Hierarchical
5. Nontraditional