What images mean?

Design Studies Assignment 2. This here assignment focuses on the power of imagery, and how a single image can provoke certain emotions, memories, opinions and messages to the viewer without any text being needed.
Given the essay by Roland Barthes we were to decipher (tough read) the ideas that the author put forward concerning ‘The Rhetoric of the image’.

An advertisement for ‘Panzani’ Pasta range is used as an example, Barthes goes into great detail picking out everything there is to be observed from the image and reading three different messages from it, this being the linguistic, denoted and rhetoric image. The linguistic message is mainly formed from the caption and text surrounding/placed on the objects where the brand name “Panzani” is described as having an “Italianicity” to it, even though it’s the french language being used elsewhere. The denoted message supports any symbolic meaning the image is portraying, pushing us to get whatever hidden codes/message might be being shown rather than the obvious statement that can be made on the advert which would be the Rhetoric message.
Some of the questions we discussed were How does an image store meaning? Why is the context of the image important? How far do we take our own presumptions/knowledge in deciphering an image, and why? How can an advertisement be tweaked to appeal to different audiences?

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We held a brainstorming session with advertising association, coming up with some examples of memorable advertisements (Guinness, Cadbury Gorilla) and why these are memorable? We realised that these adverts didn’t give you any clues as to what the product would taste/smell like (which defeats the whole purpose of an advertisement surely) but instead featured something visually stunning that captured attention, which you then associate with the product. According to studies the ‘average’ person watches television 4 hours a day which equates to roughly 1500 hours a year, considering that there’s usually a 3 minute ad break every 15 minutes, 12 minutes of every hour you spend watching television will be advertisements, and from this we’ve all become accustomed to certain ‘styles’ that each category of product seems to have, for example, car adverts seem to follow a certain theme, which is demonstrated in the video below.

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I chose this advertisement from a magazine, covered up all the text as well as the product and showed it to another person, Tess, who is not associated with my discipline and asked her to decipher it as best she could while not thinking of it as promoting a product. She described the woman in the picture as feminine, ‘princess like’, innocent but felt her facial expression revealed that perhaps she’s not as innocent as thought upon first glance. Tess didn’t like the model featured and stated that she made her feel angry and frustrated as the impression she got was that the model looked ‘spoilt’ and was ‘flaunting’ herself and her outfit. When asked about the composition and whether she liked it or not, she found it eye catching because of the contrast between the pastel outfit and the bright red apples but not memorable as she couldn’t relate to the model.

Tess guessed correct that the advertisement was for perfume (main giveaway being the apples in the background, and since apples are not usually advertised … perfume was the second option), but seemed unsure how she knew this, most perfume adverts seem to have a certain ‘look’, featuring a model of some sort expressing an emotion whether it be innocence, seduction or looking refreshed, but does this give you any clues at to what the product actually smells like?

What was interesting was that Tess guessed the brand of the perfume, Nina Ricci, because she’s seen their previous advertisements and is aware of what their ‘signature’ style is, floral, feminine, mystical and fairytale-esque. How did she think the advert could be improved? Celebrity. We came to the realisation of the power that celebrities have on advertising, if we associate a product with a famous figure we admire we’re automatically going to have a positive opinion on it, since the model featured in this image was, in Tess’ opinion, “unlikeable” and anonymous, she was immediately put off it.

I found this experiment quite rewarding and it offered a fascinating insight into the ‘world of advertising’ when you start to break down each element of an image being used to grasp your attention, a whole story can be formed round it without any text being needed. First impressions can be deceiving when it comes to an image and that it isn’t the image itself that’s important but the context it’s placed in.