Document Design

The emergence of visual literacy has brought upon a new perspective in document designing. A good document must not only comprise good verbal language but also good images as well. Schriver (1997) opines that professionals should solve complex communication problems by applying visual and verbal rhetoric knowledge.

In this slide of my Individual Presentation you can see that images and words rely on each other to convey the message to the audience.
The theory of ideal and real can also be applied here, where Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) says that the top signifies a generalized definition while the bottom provides a specific and detailed evidence. In this case, the top photograph represents a photograph of night view in Kuala Lumpur city, the bottom description clarifies to audience about the meaning of the photograph which is portraying Earth Hour 2009.


Color is another crucial element in document design. According to Reep (2006) color in a document catches the reader's eye and is appealing to reader. It can also distinguish levels of information and code information of their purpose or importance.

Therefore, I have changed the background colour in my individual presentation slides to a light shade of pink rather than plain white in my group presentation slides. The titles in my individual presentation slides are also bolder and deeper coloured.


Group presentation slide

Individual presentation slide


Putnis and Petelin (1996) says that rhetorical appeals and strategies in writing is often used to pass the message across to the readers. I have learnt that both verbal and visual literacy is equally important in document designing to produce a good document. Multimodal presentation works better in maintaining audience interests (Walsh, 2006)




References :

1. Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006. Reading images. Chapter 6: The meaning of composition

2. Putnis, Peter & Petelin, Roslyn 1999, Professional communication, 2nd edn, Prentice Hall Australia Pty Ltd, Australia.

3. Reep, DC 1997, Technical writing: principles, strategies, and readings, Allyn and Bacon, Boston.

4. Schriver K.A 1997, Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.

5. Walsh, M. 2006,” ‘Textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts,” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, no.1, p.24-37.

Purpose

The purpose of this weblog is to discuss the issues of publications and design in today's contemporary society. In the era of the textual shift and emerging new visual literacies, document designing has became increasingly important in publications to ensure the correct message is conveyed to the audience.

In this blog, the main discussion will be focused on what makes a good document design and how to produce a piece of good writing. This blog is meant to be shared with everyone who has the passion for the area and who wants to know more on issues in publications and design.