Shaping Information: The Rhetoric of Visual Conventions

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Shaping Information: The Rhetoric of Visual Conventions

3.44 of 5 stars 3.44 · rating details · 9 ratings · 2 reviews

From charts, texts, and graphs to illustrations, icons, and screens, we live in an information age saturated with visual language. Yet the underlying principles that provide structure for visual language have long eluded scholars of rhetoric, design, and engineering. To function as a language that reliably conveys meaning, visual language must embody codes that normalize i...more

Hardcover, 280 pages

Published November 12th 2003 by Southern Illinois University Press

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-18 of 18)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jun 16, 2012 Aimée added it

Shelves: multimodal

Primarily written for designers, this book argues conventions are the key to shaping information. The book claims that although we live in an information age inundated with visual language (e.g. charts, texts, graphs, illustrations, icons, screens) the structure of that language evades scholars of rhetoric, design, engineering, etc. “Although scholars have theorized how visual language develops in social and cultural contexts, these avenues of inquiry remain fragmented across many disciplines. F...more Primarily written for designers, this book argues conventions are the key to shaping information. The book claims that although we live in an information age inundated with visual language (e.g. charts, texts, graphs, illustrations, icons, screens) the structure of that language evades scholars of rhetoric, design, engineering, etc. “Although scholars have theorized how visual language develops in social and cultural contexts, these avenues of inquiry remain fragmented across many disciplines. Furthermore, scholarship has failed to recognize the pervasiveness of conventions, how users shape and share them in groups, and how designers adapt and combine them for specific situations. As a result, insofar as it functions in any kind of orderly system across the broad spectrum of information design practices, visual language remains theoretically untamed” (4). In the face of that uncertainty, Kostelnick et al posits that in order for us to employ visual language in a way that reliably relays meaning, we must go through a process of normalizing or codifying its practices (for both those who design/create and those who read/interpret). The process the authors describe is shaped by conventional practices that are invented, codified, and then modified by users in (visual) discourse communities.

What I like about this book is the wide-ranging use of the aesthetic (although this is not altogether acknowledged). Sometimes it is referred to as a style or genre, sometimes a sensibility, at other times a cultural force. Most scholarship rarely deploys more than one use for the aesthetic. In general, the aesthetic in Shaping Information falls into the category of the discourse community which encompasses “groups of designers and readers and the hierarchical relations among group members that define and certify conventions” (82). The aesthetic is found in the cultural subset of the discourse community, which entails: “values, attitudes and knowledge, including aesthetics, that are shared by members of national or ethnic groups and that shape conventional codes” (82). [The authors claim this but then don’t discuss it].

Regarding the aesthetic, the authors point to two interesting studies: “In separate studies, James Mangan and Rune Pettersson, for example, outline how picture-making conventions reflect cultural and physical attributes of the designer’s environment, while William Horton illustrates the ways in which designers of pictures and icons can undermine their designs by ignoring the cultural values of the users. Those values are invariably linked to aesthetics, a key form of cultural knowledge that often plays an important, yet unacknowledged, role in conventional practices” (4).
(less)

like · see review

Oct 13, 2009 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

A rather dense introduction to visual rhetoric, but with lots of examples to help clarify.

like · see review

Feb 17, 2013 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jun 20, 2012 Barbara marked it as to-read

Jun 09, 2012 Ray marked it as later-never

Shelves: graphic-design

Apr 29, 2012 Steven marked it as to-read

Shelves: non-fiction

Jun 20, 2012 Kerri Nash rated it 2 of 5 stars

Aug 12, 2011 Robyn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, technical, communication, visual

Jul 25, 2011 Ricardo marked it as to-read

Dec 29, 2010 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mar 06, 2010 Christopher Wyatt added it

Apr 12, 2010 Jana added it

Shelves: read-for-grad-school

Aug 12, 2009 Doug Stringham rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: visual-language, visual-design, instructional-design

Dec 20, 2008 Shannon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: hci_and_design, value_theory_and_normativity

Apr 29, 2008 Lula added it

Jan 12, 2008 Denise Gonzales Crisp rated it 3 of 5 stars

Jun 03, 2007 Ryan marked it as to-read

Shelves: design-library

May 08, 2007 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

Goodreads is hiring!

If you like books and love to build cool products, we may be looking for you.
Learn more »

Genres

Non Fiction

2 users

See top shelves...

Books by Charles Kostelnick

Designing Visual Language: Strategies for Professional Communicators (Part of the Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical Communication)

Designing Visual Language: Strategies for Professional Communicators

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Shaping Informati...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: Shaping Information: The Rhetoric of Visual Conventions
avg rating	preview: Shaping Information: The Rhetoric of Visual Conventions Goodreads rating: 3.44 (9 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/818165.Shaping_Information?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328813878l/818165.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/818165.Shaping_Information?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Shaping Information: The Rhetoric of Visual Conventions by Charles Kostelnick[/url]