Visual Rhetoric is a form of persuasion that engages us on a subconscious level. We are subjected without ever being aware, to a variety of image-based persuasions in our daily life.
Everything we see has been designed to create some form of subliminal response. Whether it is the sleek, user friendly, ergonomic design of apple products, or the beautification of political candidates(a la Will(I)am), we are told how to perceive almost everything we interact with before ever being able to come to our own conclusions.
Often, by designing something to be representative of a quality such as elegant or edgy, we are merely positioning our design in opposition to its opposite quality: "This product is NOT cheap" etc.
I have created for my design object, a poster which can be read in a number of different ways. While the poster has been set up to allow the reader to read it in four different ways, essentially it presents two opposing perspectives on how awareness of this rhetoric can allow the designer and the consumer to interact.
Subtle, yes. But it effectively delivers my message that we can design in a way that allows people to come to their own conclusions, rather than presenting a flashy package that forces an impression upon the viewer. After all, nobody likes to be told what to think, do they?
