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06 · Rhetoric stage

Use visual rhetoric

Use visual strategies to shape meaning and strengthen the message.

Metaphor → Exaggerate → Juxtapose → Borrow meaning → Show, don't just tell Good visual communication does more than show information. It can persuade, provoke, compare and make an audience think.

Persuade · Emphasise · Provoke

01

Use metaphor

Communicate one idea through another.

Do this

Complete:

This idea is like ______.

Avoid the first obvious answer.

Ask:

What qualities do they share?

Turn that connection into a quick visual.

WHY IT HELPS

Metaphor helps make abstract ideas easier to understand and remember.

It creates meaning by connecting the message to something the audience already recognises.

Do not just make two things look alike.

Ask what meaning is being transferred.

For example:

Stress is like carrying weight.

The useful connection is not simply "person + heavy object." It might be:

pressure · burden · imbalance · exhaustion

Those qualities can shape the visual idea.

A strong metaphor creates a connection the audience can understand without needing everything explained.

Complete visually:

"This idea is like…"

Draw the connection.

Sometimes showing the idea indirectly makes it stronger.

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02

Exaggerate

Push one idea further than reality.

Do this

Choose the most important part of your idea.

Push it to an extreme:

scale · quantity · contrast · repetition · impossibility

Make a quick version.

Then ask:

What became clearer when I exaggerated it?

WHY IT HELPS

Exaggeration makes emphasis visible.

Pushing something beyond reality can reveal what the project is really trying to say.

Hyperbole is intentional exaggeration.

You might make something:

impossibly large · overwhelmingly repeated · unusually small · excessively crowded · completely absent

The point is not simply to make the design dramatic.

Ask:

What does the exaggeration communicate?

If it strengthens the message, keep exploring it. If it is only spectacle, pull it back.

Draw the normal version beside the exaggerated version.

What becomes clearer when you push it?

Exaggeration can make the message impossible to ignore.

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03

Juxtapose

Create meaning through contrast.

Do this

Choose two things that create tension:

old / new

natural / artificial

calm / chaos

public / private

want / reality

Place them together.

Ask:

What does the relationship between them say?

WHY IT HELPS

Placing contrasting ideas together can reveal tension, difference or contradiction.

The relationship between the two elements creates the meaning.

The two things do not simply need to look different.

Their relationship should add meaning.

Think back to your Find the tension card.

If your insight was:

We want convenience, but convenience creates waste

you might visually juxtapose the ease of the purchase with what remains afterwards.

The audience makes the connection.

You do not always need to explain it for them.

Place two contrasting ideas side by side.

Draw what happens between them.

Put two things together and let the relationship do the talking.

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04

Borrow meaning

Use something familiar to bring existing meaning into your idea.

Do this

Choose something your audience may recognise:

design movement · visual style · cultural reference · symbol · format · familiar system

Ask:

What does this already communicate?

Then borrow and reinterpret that meaning for your project.

WHY IT HELPS

Familiar visual references already carry associations.

Borrowing and transforming those associations can give the design another layer of meaning.

This is sometimes called intertextuality — one piece of communication referring to another.

A Swiss-inspired grid might suggest order and clarity.

Punk graphics might suggest disruption or resistance.

Art Deco may bring associations of glamour or luxury.

But do not copy the surface.

Ask:

Why am I using this reference?

What meaning am I borrowing?

How am I transforming it?

Knowing visual history gives you a larger vocabulary to design with.

Draw a familiar reference and your idea.

Show what meaning you are borrowing and changing.

Design already has a visual history. Use it deliberately.

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05

Show, don't just tell

Make the evidence part of the communication.

Do this

Find one claim your project makes.

Ask:

Can I show this instead of saying it?

Use:

process · material · behaviour · evidence · data · consequence

to make it visible.

WHY IT HELPS

A claim becomes stronger when the audience can see what supports it.

Evidence can make the message more credible and meaningful.

If a project says it is:

sustainable · handmade · inclusive · transparent · community-led

ask what the audience can actually see that demonstrates that.

Could you reveal the process?

Show where materials came from?

Visualise the evidence?

Expose what usually stays hidden?

This is rhetoric too.

You are making an argument through what you choose to show.

Draw the claim on one side and the evidence on the other.

How could the evidence become part of the design?

Sometimes showing something is more convincing than claiming it.

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