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Visual rhetoric falls under the field of visual literacy, which is considered to be a key 21st century skill. Visual rhetoric has to do with how information is communicated through the use of visual images and texts. It includes observing, analyzing, and evaluating images for their form, meaning, and impact.

Click to enlarge the chart below to better understand the relationship of visual rhetoric and visual literacy.

"A Conceptual Map of Visual Communication" from "Teaching Visual Literacy and Document Design in First-Year Composition" (MA Thesis) by Allen Brizee.

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Visual media includes visual art, photos, texts, video, television, memes, movies...any visual element that communicates a message.

Every day we are surrounded by visual online, in the media, in print culture, in museums, etc. Take a moment to think about all of the places where you observe visual media.

Look at the image below and reflect on the following questions:

- What do you see?
- What symbols are used in the image?
- How is space used?
- Is alphabetic text used in the image? Where is it positioned?
What is the font style?
- What colors are used?
- What other observations do you have about this image?

Coca Cola online advertising image, 2018.

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Analyzing a visual text helps us understand its message. The main categories of rhetorical analysis are:

- Genre (How would you categorize this image?)
- Audience (To whom is this visual directed?)
- Purpose (What are the authors of this visual trying to achieve?)
- Context (In which situation is this visual used/found/presented?)
- Content (What are the elements contained in  this visual? How are they used? What design elements are at play?)

Using the four categories above, conduct a rhetorical analysis of the Coca Cola advertisement. Post it here:

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After completing an analysis of the visual text (genre, audience, purpose, context, and content), reflecting on the following questions can help us evaluate its impact.

- What are the main ideas communicated the visual text?
- Why did the author choose to communicate these ideas in this way?
- Is the visual text biased or ideological in nature? What content elements support your answer?
- How does the context in which this visual text was created/used/found influence the effectiveness of its message?
- Do the content and design choices (imagery, color texture, perspective, alphabetic text, etc.) support the purpose of the visual text? How?

Post your responses to these evaluation questions as a comment next to your rhetorical analysis on the Padlet below.

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You can use these elements of visual rhetoric observation, analysis, and evaluation to think through how to create impactful visuals.

This article gives information on visual elements and how to use them to create different rhetorical situations. It provides a useful framework for thinking through genre, audience, purpose, and content when composing a visual text.

Thinking through these rhetorical components, create a visual text using Piktochart and post it on the Padlet below.

Leave a 100-word comment on two other classmates' images using concepts from this lesson (genre, audience, purpose, content, context, design elements, alphabetic text, color, texture, symbolism, perspective, etc.)