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NOTHING

BUT THE

TRUTH

A visual investigation: how visual language affects on our perception of truth, our beliefs.

Valerio OliveriMAGDFT 2009------------------------------Major ProjectReport + Visual Summary------------------------------Tutor: Russell Bestley

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“ALL MEDIA WORK US OVER COMPLETELY.

THEY ARE SO PERVASIVE IN THEIR PERSONAL,

POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AESTHETIC,

PSYCHOLOGICAL, MORAL, ETHICAL, AND SOCIAL

CONSEQUENCES THAT THEY LEAVE NO PART

OF US UNTOUCHED, UNAFFECTED, UNALTERED.

THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE.

ANY UNDERSTANDING OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL

CHANGE IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT A KNOWLEDGE

OF THE WAY MEDIA WORK AS ENVIRONMENTS.”

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“ALL MEDIA WORK US OVER COMPLETELY.

THEY ARE SO PERVASIVE IN THEIR PERSONAL,

POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AESTHETIC,

PSYCHOLOGICAL, MORAL, ETHICAL, AND SOCIAL

CONSEQUENCES THAT THEY LEAVE NO PART

OF US UNTOUCHED, UNAFFECTED, UNALTERED.

THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE.

ANY UNDERSTANDING OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL

CHANGE IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT A KNOWLEDGE

OF THE WAY MEDIA WORK AS ENVIRONMENTS.”

“OUTSIDE THE LIMIT OF OUR SIGHT, FEEDING OFF

US, PERCHED ON TOP OF US, FROM BIRTH TO DEATH,

ARE OUR OWNERS! OUR OWNERS! THEY HAVE US.

THEY CONTROL US! THEY ARE OUR MASTERS!

WAKE UP! THEY’RE ALL ABOUT YOU! ALL AROUND YOU!”

“OUTSIDE THE LIMIT OF OUR SIGHT, FEEDING OFF

US, PERCHED ON TOP OF US, FROM BIRTH TO DEATH,

ARE OUR OWNERS! OUR OWNERS! THEY HAVE US.

THEY CONTROL US! THEY ARE OUR MASTERS!

WAKE UP! THEY’RE ALL ABOUT YOU! ALL AROUND YOU!”

Previous pages quotations:

-Marshall McLuhan “The medium is the massage”-Extract from John Carpenter’s movie “They live”

Abstract

Background

Context Medium, Semiotics, Language, and Perception

Medium: the shift of information from word to image Semiotics: word and image Language: the debate Perception: audience oriented design

Focus Mainstream and Counter-Information Information Manipulators

Process: generating ideas

Visual Research Vernacular, Information and Commercial

Content: why “Zeitgeist The Movie”?

Aim/Project Statement of Intent + Research Question

First experimentation set: Cropping and framing

Second experimentation set: Same content, different language

Methodology/Development Visual experimentation Posters series

The outcome, its function and application

Conclusion: critical reflection

Bibliography

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INDEX

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AB-STRACT

“Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication.”

The main aim of the project is to analyse and experiment with the relationship between the

medium and the message. I will explore a series of typologies, design’s languages and the way the visual language can affect on the content.

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This project will be a good oppurtunity to adopt an awareness of how design decisions can literally revert the content of the information, and above all demonstrate to the general audience how information can be shaped by design in so many ways, that we end up in having the same content but a completely different message and meaning.

I am also interested in the way the message can be manipulated in order to hide or highlight information and therefore change our perception of the facts, which at this point depends more on the medium rather than on the content.This project is aimed to show how is it possible to “not tell the truth” even without lying, trying to raise more awareness regarding the belief on the media, whichever is the purpose, either to sell, inform or persuade. Thus creating a moment of reflection for both designers and audience.

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Marshall McLuhan

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“In 1972, at a public debate in Amsterdam that has acquired an almost legendary status in the

annals of Dutch design, the two locked horns for the first time. In Helvetica, Crouwel recalls how committed he was in those years to the idea of “neutrality” that Helvetica represented. The type shouldn’t have a meaning in itself: the meaning resided in the content of the text. In Crouwel’s view, the subjectivity of Van Toorn’s approach was wrong because it meant that designers could only work on projects that they personally supported. “You must not try . . . to get the message across better than the one who is emitting the message,” said Crouwel. Van Toorn agreed that the designer’s task was to convey the content, but insisted that designers still had a crucial contribution of their own to make. “Crouwel’s fear of subjective interference leads to uniformity, causing a distinct identity to disappear,” he said.”These words gave me the motivation to think again

about my project, but more importantly, to reflect again about the nature of our profession and the impact of our actions have on the society we live in.One of the key words I have taken in account is “neutrality”, a word with a very strong and even controversial meaning if applied to communication.In fact, what does neutrality mean? Is not the designer’s task to shape the content, and so the information? How can we be neutral? Would ‘impartial’ not be a better definition?

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When we design we usually do it for a specified audience and we usually use a language to suit that specified target. We also usually have an objective, which could be either selling, informing or persuading.So should we not talk about the best practice to reach the objective rather than about neutrality?

CONTEXT -LAN-GUAGE

THE DEBATE

PT2

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STATEMENT OF INTENT + RESEARCH QUESTION

AIM/PROJECT

As previously stated, the main aim of my project is to analyse the sequence of events

involved in shaping information and, above all, create a moment of reflection for both designers and audience regarding the power of rhetoric and therefore visual language in graphic design, or, in more general terms, visual communication.

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Here is, in fact, come to life my research question: how can I make designers reflect on the effects of their decisions, and the audience aware of the power of visual language, as something that affect their perception of facts?

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I believe that the best way for a good understanding is always the experience, so the idea to show not only the final outcomes but the

whole process of manipulation, to underline how small changes can alterate the interpretation of the content, involving so the audience in the manipulation process.At the very beginning, my experimentation took place on different printed media but after few experiments I thought it was more effective to narrow my experimentation on only one and my decision ended up on posters. The reason is quite obvious, posters are historically the most direct and possibly the most powerful form of graphic design, their impact is given more by the first look rather than by a proper narrative (as it could be in a book, booklet and so forth).

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I focussed so my attention on some basic points, such as the relation between word and image, the use of image alteration and their cropping, or the influence of typefaces on the whole design.

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