Post 1: The rhetorical roles visuals play

Visuals are very powerful ways of organizing information in a hierarchy as to establish order and organization. By visuals, I refer to the text, style, color, pictures, any and all elements used to create the piece and follow the four basic principles of proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast. Together, these elements create visuals that clearly depict pertinent information that can be registered by the audience within milliseconds with little thought or effort. They usually represent the broader picture and encourage the intended audience to seek out further information.

The organization that the visuals create instills confidence within the audience to proceed with the information presented; in other words, it establishes credibility. For example, a friend of mine was getting married and went to a bridal expose. One of the vendors had a pixilated, blurry brochure to hand out to the brides-to-be. Needless to say, with one look, she looked for another vendor. The visual is essentially the first impression you may have of a company/individual/etc. and it should captivate the audience and instill a sense of professionalism and trust.