Petals that Love & Nude Thoughts

Rhetoric Applied to a Cover Design Process

By Omar Sosa Tzec Profesor Hanno Ehses

Visual Rhetoric Master in Information Design Universidad de las Amricas, Puebla

Introduction
As mentioned in the Rhetorical Handbook by Ehses et al. (1996), Rhetoric is a vocabulary which describes the effective, persuasive use of speech is not a set of xed stylistic rules, but an open description of the patterns and processes of communication. The rhetorician chooses a style, or a mode of appeal, which will be powerful and appropriate in given situation. In addition, the gures of speech are elements considered by Ehses et al. (1996) as a departure from the ordinary use of language. These gures are categorized into tropes and schemes. The rst ones alter the customary reference of signs, and the latter alter their normal arrangement (Ehses et al., 1996). In this context, the word sign refers to a entity, not autonomous, neither self-contained entity or physical object, but only exist in relation to other signs (Ehses et al., 1996). In a simple way, a sign is nothing but a unit of meaning; therefore, constructs every communication process (i.e. the speech). According to Ehses(1989) the major (rhetoric) gures are grouped in gures of contrast, gures of resemblance, gures of contiguity and gures of gradation. Metaphor (from resemblance gures), Metonymy and Synecdoche (from contiguity gures), and Hyperbole (from the gradation group), are some of the major gures specially used in graphic design. This paper shows the application of rhetoric, particulary rhetoric gures, as a tool to design a book cover from the play En qu piensas? (What are you thinking?) by Xavier Villaurrutia (1938). The design process here considered is based on Ehses framework (Ehses, 1989); that is, separate content from the expresion in two phases: the graphic encoding and the visual conceptualization. As Ehses(1989) explains with a poster design for Macbeth play: signication process in design involves two major operations: formation of the visual concept as well as graphic encoding. Although in the former, the central problem of design involves nding an idea that expresses the play in some respect or capacity, the concern in the latter is in the visual transformation of this concept. For design, as a practical and intellectual discipline, both operations are equally important. As result, two covers were designed considering the context: which is the play itself and the meaning that Villaurrutia wanted to transmit. For each one, two contents (in Ehsessense) were developed with their respective visual conceptualizations.

Context
The play En qu piensas? by Villaurrutia (1938) has just one act divided into nine escenes. It has ve characters: Carlos, Vctor, Ramn, Mara Luisa and a stranger. The important contextualization here embeded is those characters are young, all lower than thirty years old. This is important because the play wants to reect the statement of love in that time; the latter due Mara Luisa attitude with the other four characters. The play begins with an stressing scene of Carlos waiting for Mara Luisa and the arriving of Vctor to Carlos place. Victor is asked by Carlos if he has been spying him, and then the discusion turns around Mara Luisa and the evidence that both are in love with her. The important thing is how the discusion was triggered: by questioning Mara Luisa on what she thinks when goes quite and thoughtful. Mara Luisa always answers the same: in you. This answer represents the the intrinsict way that Mara Luisa denes her feelings about love. Carlos is expecting for Mara Luisa, just to confess he is still in love, but Vctor was too jealous to allow their meeting. Then, when they thought Mara Luisa has just arrived because the sombody rings the door bell, Ramn came to Carlos place just to borrow a book from his personal library. He comments he just saw Mara Luisa few minutes before and that she was not considering to go at Carlos place, instead she went shopping. After that, Ramn is involved in the discusion and asked to stay. Mara Luisa arrives two escenes later, involging herself with Ramn by a dialog arround love and the timeline of it. This is core message of the play, by the lines from that conversation between Ramn and Mara Luisa, she explains the concept of love from a postmodernism point of view of how to love: she considers she loves anyone that love her. So, Carlos is the love from the past, Vctor is the love from the present and she arms that Ramn shall be in love with her, so he is going to be conresponded by Mara Luisa. This statement support the answer Mara Luisa is always saying to everyone that asks her what she is thinking. Then, the invterventation of the stranger comes to escene; he met Mara Luisa and instantly fell in love with her and he asked to carry some packages she was holding, he was waiting until deseperates and rang the door bell, he apologizes and left. This part of the play is the rearmation of Mara Luisa of her thinking about love, because the stranger just couldnt wait then he doesnt love her at all, because to love Mara Luisa is to wait for her to correspond sometime when she decides. As the climax of the play, she stood thoughtful again and the recursive question is asked again by Vctor. The three men are expecting for the answer, because everytime before the answer is considered for one single person. However, she answers she is thinking in nothing and the three of them just cant believe her. Indeed, she responds shes thinking in nothing, therefore she is happy, nally. The curtains goes down with the three men disapointed and the sparkle in Mara Luisa sight.

Escena

Escena
En el estudio de Carlos. Un divn, un silln, mesa y sillas. Dos o tres cuadros. La antesala, en el fondo, comunica por una puerta sin hojas. A la derecha, la pared se halla casi totalmente sustituda por una vidriera. A la izquierda, puerta que da al cuarto de Carlos. Carlos espera; enciende un cigarillo, hojea sin atencin una revista, se asoma a la ventana; apaga el cigarillo, toma la revista. Se oye el timbre de la puerta de entrada. Carlos pasa a la antesala con el objeto de abrir la puerta. Se oyen las voces de Carlos y Vctor.

PERSONAJES
Carlos Vctor Ramn Mara Luisa Un desconocido (Todos menores de treinta aos)

The Process
The challenge is to design a cover of the plays book. Orignally, the cover has no indication of design being completely red because UDLA library standars for old books. The consideration is a whole redesign of the plays text and cover, considering the play will be presented as a pocket book for sale. The cover should be congruent with the content design proposed and to represent the key ideas explained in the context section, all without any image but those by typography composition. As treated by Ehses (1989), the process is by the separation of content from expresion, divided in the graphic encoding and the visual conceptualization. For the two cover designs, the content in the graphic encoding phase is conformed by a rethoric phrase that envolves key features extracted from the context from the play. From the visual conceptualization, the content refers to play per se and the expresion is the cover design to be proposed.

ESCENA CARLOS - VCTOR

Ah, eres t? S, yo. Te sorprende? (Entrando.) Sorprenderme precisamente, no. (Entrando.) Pero no me esperabas, verdad? Claro que no.

Escena
No me entiendes an. Qu quiere decir que me dejen de amar cuando yo sigo amando? Quieres decir que nos amas a los tres a un tiempo? No como t lo entiendes. A un tiempo, no; en el tiempo. Pero Carlos ya est en el pasado. Es verdad. Y tu en el presente y Ramn en el futuro. Pero, qu son, en este caso, pasado, presente y porvenir, sino palabras? Si yo no he muerto, el pasado est como el presente, y del mismo modo que el futuro, en m, dentro de m, en mis recuerdos, en mi satisfaccin, en mis deseos, que no pueden morir mientras yo tenga vida. (Pausa breve.) Verdad que ahora comprenden? (Como a pesar suyo.) S, te comprendo. (Toma asiento.) Tal vez. (Toma asiento.) No, no te comprendo; pero no importa: un da comprender. (Toma asiento.) Todos han comprendido. T, Carlos, que ya no me amas, conesas. T, Vctor, que me amas, dudas todava. Y Ramn, que an no me ama, espera que un da comprender. (Se oye el timbre de la puerta. Con excepcin de Mara Luisa, los dems parecen no haber odo.) Han llamado. (A Carlos.) Esperas a alguien ms? A nadie. Es extrao! (Sale a abrir. Se oye casi en seguida la voz del desconocido.)

Escena
ESCENA MARA LUIS - RAMN - CARLOS - VCTOR EL SEOR DESCONOCIDO

La seorita? Tiene usted la bondad de avisar a la seorita A la seorita que entr hace rato. (De pie, dndose sbitamente cuenta de su olvido.) Es verdad! Lo haba olvidado! Pase, pase usted. (Entra con Carlos un seor joven, increblemente aliado, increblemente tmido y, en consecuencia, increblemente ridculo. Lleva en la mano tres paquetes grandes.) (A Mara Luisa.) El seor pregunta por ti. (Al Desconocido.) Perdneme, perdneme! En qu estaba pensando! Yo hubiera querido esperar ms tiempo. Pero tema tema que usted que usted Lo hubiera olvidado. As fu. Dispnseme. (Se apresura a recoger los paquetes, que Carlos, Vctor y Ramn le quitan a su vez y que ya no abandonarn.) No volver a suceder. Y muchas gracias. Pero debe estar rendido. Tome asiento, acrquese usted. (Azorado, cohibido, nerviossimo.) No, muchas gracias. Debo irme. A sus rdenes, seorita. (A todos.) Buenas noches.

Sample pages from the redesigned contet.

First Design
For the rst design, is extracted from the context that Mara Luisa is part of the life the four men from the play. However, she is attached to them because the indenition of what love is. By the end, from the clarication of her feelings and thought, Mara Luisa sets herself free, as if she is going to reach for happiness from that moment. Therefore, the phrase chosen that encapsulates those points is Love is a ower and every lover is a petal of it. Not to love, is to fall apart from the ower. The rst part Love is a ower is a metonymy which refers to love as something organic that has life and grows. The midle part every lover is a petal stands that lovers should be part of love, so another metonymy is found by cause. When it is said that Not to love, is to fall apart from the ower is a metonymy also, the latter by stablishing the relation from not to love and fall apart. Since the rst and midle part is read rst, the latter is a periphrasis in this context only. In the gure below, the rst proposal is shown.Its important to remark that the graphic visualization incorpores to itself the fact that the play title is a question, so the interrogative is considered somehow within the visualization. Thus, the sensation of the expectation for an answer is integrated.

HT
editorial hipertipo

First Cover Design Proposal for the Play

HT
editorial hipertipo

As it can be seen, the ower functions as the basic visualization unit. The ower per se is a metaphor of a ower from the real world since it is just and iconic representation composed by typographic symbols. The lovers are also a metaphor visualization and each one is a sinecdoche because they are petals per se. The important aspect here considered is the petal that is ying away. It represents Mara Luisa, so the global concept of this representation situates the phrase mentioned before as a event in past time. As consecquence, the back side of the cover stands in the present, stablished by a metonymy that remarks that Mara Luisa is apart from the (mens) love and the vessel (the letter u) points the ower is not longer on the ground, so it shall eventually wilt without Mara Luisa.

Second Design
In this case, the rethoric phrase that is chosen for content element is Questioning nudes a person which stands for the fact the knowing thought for a person it is equivalent to expose. That is, the phrase functions as periphrasis in substitition to be known. It is clearly that the person to be expose is Mara Luisa, so the visualization shows an iconic representation of a woman body.

The ower as basic visualization unit

HT
editorial hipertipo

HT
editorial hipertipo

Second Cover Design Proposal for the Play

The latter is per se a metonymy by causality (i.e. Mara Luisa as the person exposed) which is represented by a sinecdoche because just part of the body is represented. The whole statement from the phrase above is conrmed by the interrogative symbols that acts like a sinecdoche (for the nude body), in yuxtaposition of the exterior /the questioners (i.e. the men from the play) metaphoricaly represented by the change of color.

Discusion
As it can be seen from the two results. The rhetoric process could be use as strong basis for the visualization of any concept within a design process. Althought, the contextualization plays an important factor in the visualization phase. Even a strong rhetoric statement can be stablished, the visualization remarks the nature of it; that is, the statement comes from extracting key features that are structured to construct a persuasive way of communication, in this case to express the meaning inherent in the play about love. Without this contextualization, another visualization could be considered, not necesary related with the fact to express the love of one woman an dfour men in love with her. Considering the Macbeth case study from Ehses (1989), the contextualization is given by name of this king, but the equivalent considerations could be taken in count if one tries to visualizate the rhetoric phrase The king as human beast since for this case, the in addition with king refers to Macbeth, which is already know. Therefore, the rhetoric development of a design process is considerably link with the context and cleary this process is a cognitive excersice for the designer from one of many possible graphic encodings which induces many possible visualizations of it.

Conclusions
Two proposals of a cover for En qu piensas? play were proposed. Each one of them were design by the separation of a graphic encoding constructed with a rhetoric phrase and later expressed with one particular visualization. The separation of the graphic encoding from the visualization within a design process is an effective mode of develope a visual communication item. The rhetoric involved within a design process is linked to some context given by the proyect that requires a design solution.

References
Ehses, Hanno. Design and Rhetoric: An Analysis of Theatre Posters. Design Papers 4. Second printing. Canada. 1989. Ehses, Hanno, et al. Rhetorical Handbook. Department of Visual Communication of Nova Scotia College. Canada. 1996. Villaurrutia, Xavier. En qu piensas? Letras de Mxico. Mxico. 1938.