The chapter has discussed the relationships between the human actors and the visual artefact actors in the study. Key contributions are made to the fields of graphic design, and sociology through the cultural approach to the visual communication of anthropogenic climate change (ACC). Enquiries into both the human and the ad system, and an examination of the relationships between these two systems results in several key findings, particularly due the study’s interpretation of the site of production as graphic designers, as opposed to existing studies which instead focus on communication strategists and department heads.
The first major contribution is through the examination of the graphic design process, rather than the borrowing of design process from similar disciplines. Firstly, understanding that graphic design aims to generate and materialise ideas (Harland 2015) in order to evoke certain actions or beliefs in viewers, rather than build objects or products, progresses current understanding from product and consumer-based market ideology. Isolating the graphic design process to a binary relationship between creative and non-creative states opens pathways for new debate in the graphic design domain surrounding academic theory, creative practice and the education of new designers.
The second major contribution is the new typology of signifier elements, and the subsequent coding methodology that allows for semiotic and rhetorical discussion of whole visual artefacts. Building theory for new enquiry into visual communication, this typology classifies artefacts as a system of signifiers, with subsets that allow for types of imagery that
transcend the existing assumption of image existing merely as representation of object, or as a general type of signifier that can be reduced to a numerical proportion of the artefact. As well, elements usually isolated in existing studies, such as colour, and those not often examined such as typography, can be included within the system of influencing signifiers for analysis. Coding visual artefacts according to this typology allowed for deeper investigation into viewer engagement, and the visual element at which viewers transcend the engagement stages (Williamson 1978) could be isolated and analysed further. These “Point of Conversion” results revealed that emotion is a key driver for engaging viewers, aligning with McQuarrie and Mick’s 2003 finding that emotive tropes were more engaging than less emotive schemes. This new methodology for sociological enquiry into the visual language employed by graphic
designers is the first major contribution to knowledge.
The third major finding is that habitus contributes directly at both sites of production and reception, and that, when designers attempt to align the aesthetic style and message of their visual artefacts, using aesthetic style translators, with the habitus and dispositions of audiences (Tonkinwise (2011b), unintended consequences can occur. Understanding the systems of principles that viewers apply to decode these visual artefacts may contribute to a better alignment with viewer habitus.
Finally, the fourth major finding is that aesthetic style has a major influence on production and reception of ACC visual communication. While much of the existing theory in
communication of this issue focuses on framing, rhetoric and other high level strategies, this study examined the visual translation between these strategies and intended audiences, and found that without consideration of aesthetic style, any communication strategy can be rendered ineffective. Three key areas were highlighted:
1. Aesthetic style (along with the message rhetoric) is key to sociological investigation of ACC communication. Two examples of where aesthetic style altered current thinking are:
a) Aesthetic style has a key role in the primary stage of viewer reception, where the viewers makes the initial choice of whether or not to examine the artefact, before communication engagement strategies can have any influence.
b) ACC communication types found to be most successful in other studies did not return similar results in this study which investigated aesthetically styled artefacts.
2. A combination of habitus and aesthetic style has been shown to directly affect viewers’ uptake of messages, as shown by the hegemonic or counter-hegemonic encoding and decoding of visual artefacts.
3. Photographic imagery can engage the viewer at all stages of the reception process, evoking trust, knowledge and belief. The polysemic nature of imagery may also trigger unintended decoding for support imagery that is not accompanied by explanatory text.
Chapter 7: Conclusions
7.1 Conclusion
The aim of this research study was to investigate the influence of graphic design and graphic designers on the communication of ACC messages. A review of the literature from the graphic design, communication and other ACC related fields exposed several gaps in the literature, that led to the isolation of the three research questions. The questions centred around three key sites where the phenomenon of ACC visual communication occurs— the visual artefact, its production, and its reception—and investigation into the relationships between the actors at each site. A key point of departure from the literature was to consider the influence of the aesthetic style of whole visual artefacts on reception of the ACC message, a perspective from within the field of graphic design, rather than from outside it. This
perspective led to new methodologies and new findings that make a significant contribution to sociological enquiry and the fields of graphic design, communication (particularly science communication) and ACC-related domains.
The chapter commences with a summary of how a graphic design perspective influenced the four major contributions. The first of these contributions is a new methodology for the study of visual artefacts. The benefits of this methodology are highlighted by discussion of the exact aesthetic elements at which changes in viewer engagement with the visual artefact occurred. The second contribution, the influence of aesthetic style on the experience of the visual artefact by the human viewer follows, Thirdly, how aesthetic style aligns with habitus in the viewer experience is summarised, and then discussion moves to the fourth contribution: the outcomes for graphic design made by the new logic map of visual artefact production. Finally, the research is concluded in line with the framing types that drove visual artefact selection, and have divided current literature. This discussion of framing leads to a summary of the limitations of the research methodology, and recommendations for further study.