Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover: Visual Rhetoric

First Impressions

How often have you heard: “Don’t judge a book by its cover!”? In the literal sense, and as an avid reader, I am the first to admit, I do (at first) judge a book by its cover. Before I can read anything about the book, any summary, hook, or even the title, the first thing that catches my eye is the cover. What about a book’s first impression intrigues me enough to pick it up? What about the colors, font, and images on it persuades me to read more about it and possibly buy it? Does the cover look like the brand of an author I know I like? All of these questions boil down to visual rhetoric and its ability to persuade through images. Visual rhetoric plays an important role in communicating the meaning you want your audience to take away.

Digital Spaces

In digital spaces, such as websites, visual rhetoric plays a significant role. When creating a website, it’s important to look to others for reference. To examine what people in the same genre of website you are trying to curate do in terms of style and design. This way, immediately when someone clicks on your site, they know what they’re looking at. If it looks put together and similar to the genre of website you want, your target audience knows they’re in the right place. Like all studies of rhetoric, the audience must always be examined. In the case of visual rhetoric for websites, this includes choosing the most effective layout and style with the knowledge of your target audience, the intertextuality of what’s become the norm on other websites, and accessibility considerations, to successfully persuade onlookers to keep clicking and engage with your site.

Bridging the Gap

For blog posts (like the one I’m typing now), it again comes down to the fact that, no matter the saying, people can’t help but judge by the cover. What initially catches someone’s eye?: an image. Before a title, I’d argue that what initially draws someone in to even read your title is the picture above it. Much like if you’re browsing in a bookstore. Naturally, the covers that look the most appealing or interesting to you are the ones you will look at first. The covers that convey a meaning of the text inside, enticing you to open it. Try it yourself. Scroll through the Barnes & Noble website. What draws you in? What images catch your eye? Why?

However, when selecting an image for a blog (or anything, really), it does not mean choosing one with no purpose other than to grab people’s attention. For it to be the most successful, the image must relate to the text or content it is being used for. You’ll lose the reader when they realize what initially drew them in actually has nothing to do with what they’re reading. The reader should be able to bridge the gap between the picture and the blog post’s topic after reading.

A picture is worth 1000 words. Understanding visual rhetoric is a great way to capture and hold people’s attention and communicate meaning when used effectively.