I am frequently persuaded by alluring, enticing, shockingly beautiful and even crass visuals (if they are demanding enough, I will respond). Visual persuasion is the graphic designer’s calling, and pictures are their gospel. It has been that way since engravings, woodcuts and photographs could be reproduced and distributed. The better the technology, the wider the influence and greater the persuasive power of images.
There is no shortage of essays and books, guides and manuals devoted to harnessing, encoding and transmitting pictorial power from transmitters to receivers. Some are practical, others theoretical, a few philosophical. In 1972 John Berger wrote one of the masterpieces: Ways of Seeing, a precise critical analysis of visual culture, including paintings, prints, photographs, films, or any other representation—especially art in commercial advertising and polemics and the impact on human perceptions. This surprisingly brief, insightful treatise is mandatory of all practicing visual creators. But I suggest another …
Stephen Baker (1921–2004), who worked as creative director of Cunningham & Walsh (a Mad-Man agency), was well-versed in the “science” of sight—perception and persuasion. He dedicated Visual Persuasion to “those men and women who, having gathered information, still dare to use intuition,” and rather than wade into the mire of cliche, had the intelligence and skill to write a book about the process of turning image into idea into something that in today’s argot is that tired and nebulous noun-adverb-verb: creativity.
This is not a critical (Marxist nor Capitalist) analysis of how and what to see. It is very much tied to the method and mysteries of advertising/propaganda on the mind, underscored by psychological truths and assumptions.
Although published in 1961, Visual Persuasion has as much relevance, vitality, insight, vision and spunk as any recently published book (including those that I’ve authored). The truth is this: I wish I had written it. Even though it is nearly 65 years out of print (and contains its share of outdated mores and stereotypes), it easily could still serve (with a minute refresh) to provide ideas to ward off what designers fear is the inevitable AI apocalypse—an end to original thinking and making, visual or otherwise.
Baker bases his concepts on the statement that “America is the most visual-minded nation in the world. … Picture-talk is all around us. The pragmatic approach to evaluating art. Skepticism of anything aesthetic. Demand for realism. The average American’s lack of confidence in his ‘good taste.’” And he provides standards and maxims for achieving strong results.
One major tool of the visual persuader is sexuality. The “girl next door” is the best salesperson advertisers have, he states, comparing the “frozen-faced damsel …” to the rise of “nonprofessional professionals …”
Certain feelings, he insists, are as old as mankind. To get an audience emotionally involved—which makes the beholder take ownership of a message—one can photograph models making the expression that a given campaign seeks to achieve.
Type styles also have distinct personalities. The “feel” of type, he says, depends on its structure: “The relationship of thick and thin lines, the rounded or squared-off quality of corners. Based on these factors, personality emerges.” A survey of practitioners and laymen revealed some interesting reactions people had to classic typefaces that address empathy as it relates to the method by which communication is successfully conveyed.
Eye movements are based on conditioned reflexes. “Left-to-right habit makes our eyes travel clockwise in exploring a [layout],” Baker notes. The optical center of a page is slightly to the left. The tendency is to focus attention on a person’s eyes more than on any other part of their face. This mirrors one’s emotions with fair accuracy.
He writes about order and chaos, as well: Content “arranged in an orderly manner discourages customers from investigating,” he insists. “They are afraid of destroying the neat pile; guilt feelings associated with childhood experiences keep them from taking the initiative.” However, a deliberately haphazard design composition often encourages the user to scan a page without inhabitions.
Sexuality and sensuality, as noted above, have long been impactful determinants in grabbing and holding an audience’s interest. Baker says the Maidenform Bra ad (one of many from a campaign that famously continued for decades) shows that it is possible to “present sex in its most basic form.”
A more heavy handed approach, Miss Pickle, features below in an ad for a common product.
Baker also addresses old-fashioned typefaces that charmingly evoke emotional and symbolic connotations. Some types are too ornate to evoke a modern sense, but many memories are triggered by the styles of yesteryear. Baker insists that there is no problem in “tastefully lumping together these typefaces on page.” Moreover, “when put in juxtaposition, the result seems to be an uninhibited hodgepodge of artistic endeavor with an appeal all its own.”
Visual Persuasion is a book made for our AI times. This ready-made resource to instruct whatever the designer of the 21st-century becomes after the digital dust settles holds truths that will continue to provide viable prompts for persuasive imagery.
The post The Daily Heller: Visual Persuasion Hasn’t Changed Since 1961 appeared first on PRINT Magazine.