Outline
Introduction
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Chapter 2. Reading Visuals: Purpose

Reading Visuals:
Purpose

Reading Visuals: Purpose
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Author

Cheryl E. Ball, Illinois State University and Kristin L. Arola, Washington State University

Activity Objective:

In this tutorial, you will explore how writers and designers compose visuals for specific purposes.

Click the forward and backward arrows to navigate through the slides. You may also click the above outline button to skip to certain slides.

Color photo of a blonde woman walking past three men on a city street. The photo is taken from behind the woman as the three men walk toward the camera, showing the facial expressions of the men. The men are all smiling and looking at the woman as they walk past. The woman’s face is not visible.
Lauren Greenfield/INSTITUTE

Purpose always plays a crucial role in analyzing and creating texts. Purpose answers a single question: What is this text meant to accomplish? Without a clear purpose, a text is useless as a piece of communication. As a text, this tutorial tutorial is a series of exercises that introduce a key term of visual rhetoric in an interactive way. Do you think the purpose of this web tutorial is clear?

Color photo of a blonde woman walking past three men on a city street. The photo is taken from behind the woman as the three men walk toward the camera, showing the facial expressions of the men. The men are all smiling and looking at the woman as they walk past. The woman’s face is not visible.
Lauren Greenfield/INSTITUTE

Photographs can serve different purposes, depending on the subject matter. The purpose of Lauren Greenfield’s photograph may not be immediately clear, but consider what is happening in the image. What experiences or cultural assumptions might Greenfield be responding to? What does this tell you about what she might want to accomplish with her work?

Example business card including name, title, company, email, and website
Courtesy of Cheryl E. Ball

Most of us are familiar with the business card and its purpose to clearly provide contact information about a person, as well as important professional details (job title, company name, etc.) necessary to relate to others.

Advertisement for Altoids mints featuring a man dressed like a plainclothes police detective from a 1970’s TV show. He is flashing a tin of Altoids at the camera as a detective would show a badge. The text of the ad reads, “Freeze!”
Altoids and all affiliated designs owned by and used courtesy of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company.

The accepted purpose of advertisements, generally, is to sell a product. This text is selling a specific product, as well as a way of life, or a way of being that the company wants you to associate with the product.

A collage by Dan Eldon with a variety of clippings, including cut-outs of book pages, photos, business items, magazines, advertisements, and products. Eldon uses bright purple and yellow colors around and over the clippings.
Dan Eldon, Collage from the Journey is the Destination (Chronicle Books 1997). Copyright Creative Visions Foundation, Dan Eldon.

A collage combines different images and can form a quite complicated text of its own. Your analysis of a collage will depend on careful reading of each detail. What similarities might there be between a collage and an academic paper?

A collage by Dan Eldon with a variety of clippings, including cut-outs of book pages, photos, business items, magazines, advertisements, and products. Eldon uses bright purple and yellow colors around and over the clippings.
Dan Eldon, Collage from the Journey is the Destination (Chronicle Books 1997). Copyright Creative Visions Foundation, Dan Eldon.

With a text that is complicated by so many different elements, focusing on each element separately can help you consider the purpose of the whole. Looking at each individual element in isolation won't give you a sense of purpose for the whole text, of course; rather, your reading of each one is going to inform the way you read the next. There is a domino effect as you work your way toward a statement of purpose.

Close-up of a woman’s face and her traditional African attire from Dan Eldon’s collage. Colorful beads and jewlery are all around the woman’s head, ears, and neck.
Dan Eldon, Collage from the Journey is the Destination (Chronicle Books 1997). Copyright Creative Visions Foundation, Dan Eldon.

This female face dominates the collage; yet, because of the way her head is turned, we see her headgear and necklaces more than her features. By choosing an image that focuses on the woman’s accessories, the artist might be emphasizing African identity in general rather than the woman’s identity as an individual. We might also note the beauty of the photo — both the woman’s physical self and the photograph’s bright colors and repetition of circular shapes.

Close-up of a flattened Kodak film box from Dan Eldon’s collage
Dan Eldon, Collage from the Journey is the Destination (Chronicle Books 1997). Copyright Creative Visions Foundation, Dan Eldon.

This is first and foremost a box that contained a canister of name-brand film. It is a highly recognizable American product bought in a common chain store, according to the price sticker on the box. Connecting the ideas of photography, American consumerism, and traditional African culture, the collage might lead us to question the relationship between American and African cultures and what each knows about the other (think Life or National Geographic).

A collage by Dan Eldon with a variety of clippings, including cut-outs of book pages, photos, business items, magazines, advertisements, and products. Eldon uses bright purple and yellow colors around and over the clippings.
Dan Eldon, Collage from the Journey is the Destination (Chronicle Books 1997). Copyright Creative Visions Foundation, Dan Eldon.

Look at how the woman’s head and the Kodak box correlate to the other elements in the collage. Eldon has grouped what appear to be photos and American business items on the right. This separation suggests that African cultures and American business interests conflict in some way.

A collage by Dan Eldon with a variety of clippings, including cut-outs of book pages, photos, business items, magazines, advertisements, and products. Eldon uses bright purple and yellow colors around and over the clippings.
Dan Eldon, Collage from the Journey is the Destination (Chronicle Books 1997). Copyright Creative Visions Foundation, Dan Eldon.

Work through the following questions to arrive at a statement that you think sums up the purpose of this collage.

A collage by Dan Eldon with a variety of clippings, including cut-outs of book pages, photos, business items, magazines, advertisements, and products. Eldon uses bright purple and yellow colors around and over the clippings.
Dan Eldon, Collage from the Journey is the Destination (Chronicle Books 1997). Copyright Creative Visions Foundation, Dan Eldon.

Here is a bit of context to help inform your analysis. The creator of this piece was a photographer named Dan Eldon. He was one of the first people to document the devastation of poverty and starvation in Somalia. His photographs of skeletal children and hundreds of starving men and women made their way to newspapers and magazines and helped galvanize relief efforts. Eldon was stoned to death by an angry mob when he was 22. This collage is one of many that he kept in a private journal, documenting his experiences in Africa.

A collage by Dan Eldon with a variety of clippings, including cut-outs of book pages, photos, business items, magazines, advertisements, and products. Eldon uses bright purple and yellow colors around and over the clippings.
Dan Eldon, Collage from the Journey is the Destination (Chronicle Books 1997). Copyright Creative Visions Foundation, Dan Eldon.

Use the space below to answer the following question.

What are the separate elements in this collage? Write down any associations you have for each element you can identify. Remember that there are elements of this composition — Eldon’s use of color and the way he has chosen to combine separate elements — that are also used to make this an effective text.
What are the separate elements in this collage? Write down any associations you have for each element you can identify. Remember that there are elements of this composition — Eldon’s use of color and the way he has chosen to combine separate elements—that are also used to make this an effective text.
Your response has been provisionally accepted and will be graded by your instructor.
A collage by Dan Eldon with a variety of clippings, including cut-outs of book pages, photos, business items, magazines, advertisements, and products. Eldon uses bright purple and yellow colors around and over the clippings.
Dan Eldon, Collage from the Journey is the Destination (Chronicle Books 1997). Copyright Creative Visions Foundation, Dan Eldon.

Use the space below to answer the following question.

Do certain elements within the text stand out more than others — because of size, color, placement, and repetition? Does this cause you to focus more on certain elements than others? Make a list of the elements you identify in order of their relative importance, from most important to least.
Do certain elements within the text stand out more than others — because of size, color, placement, and repetition? Does this cause you to focus more on certain elements than others? Make a list of the elements you identify in order of their relative importance, from most important to least.
Your response has been provisionally accepted and will be graded by your instructor.
A collage by Dan Eldon with a variety of clippings, including cut-outs of book pages, photos, business items, magazines, advertisements, and products. Eldon uses bright purple and yellow colors around and over the clippings.
Dan Eldon, Collage from the Journey is the Destination (Chronicle Books 1997). Copyright Creative Visions Foundation, Dan Eldon.

Use the space below to answer the following question.

We mentioned the grouping of elements in this collage into African and American items. Note, however, that parts of the Kodak box are placed on both sides of the collage. What does this suggest about the role of photography with respect to African culture and American business interests?
Your response has been provisionally accepted and will be graded by your instructor.
A collage by Dan Eldon with a variety of clippings, including cut-outs of book pages, photos, business items, magazines, advertisements, and products. Eldon uses bright purple and yellow colors around and over the clippings.
Dan Eldon, Collage from the Journey is the Destination (Chronicle Books 1997). Copyright Creative Visions Foundation, Dan Eldon.

Use the space below to answer the following question.

After working through all the preceding questions, what do you think the purpose of this collage is? Who is its audience? To what extent does knowing more about the context of this collage help you identify its purpose?
Your response has been provisionally accepted and will be graded by your instructor.

Congratulations! You have completed this activity.

Total Score: out of (%)

You have received a provisional score for your essay answers, which have been submitted to your instructor.