Humanizing Visual Design: The Rhetoric of Human Forms in Practical Communication (1st edition.)

This text analyzes the role that human forms play in visualizing practical information and in making that information understandable, accessible, inviting, and meaningful to readers - in short, 'humanizing' it.

Drawing on rhetorical theory, art history, design studies, and historical and contemporary examples, the book explores the many rhetorical purposes that human forms play in functional pictures, including empowering readers, narrating processes, visualizing social and cultural identities, and evoking pathos appeals.

The book is aimed at scholars, teachers, and practitioners in business, technical, and professional communication as well as an interdisciplinary audience in rhetoric, art and design, journalism, engineering, marketing, science, and history.