The psychology,
the semiotics,
the rhetoric
of visual persuasion

summary
In this research thesis, social campaigns were analyzed in the context of psychology, semiotics and rhetoric. Investigation is made into how visual arguments are constructed in social campaigns to persuade a target group. The first part of the research describes the basic psychology theories of information processing and attitude and behavior change. The second part outlines how images create meaning with the help of semiotics. The last part explains the rhetorical dimension of imagery, showing how rhetorical figures can be used to help create a convincing visual argument and as a tool for the designer and the art director to generate and formulate different visual solutions in the course of a creative conceptional process. This research does not pretend to be complete, rather it forms a personal starting point and overview for these topics. It should stimulate the reader to further reading by reviewing existing literature about the scope and construction of a visual argument. It gives creative people a wider theoretical background to justify their design choices and a grounding in these important subjects.

future outlook
In the future the website should also present more visual cases which should stimulate the visitor to take part in the discourse by sharing interesting imagery, as well as discussing and recommending literature on these topics. Please subscribe to the newsletter if you want to be updated.