Kress & Van Leeuwen "Meaning of Composition"

 

This article illustrates that complexity that goes behind the composition of nearly everything these days.   A similar example is a grocery store.  You would expect that a grocery store would be concerned with making sure that it hires the right workers who can be helpful to customers, labeling and organizing aisles in ways that are easy to navigate, and keeping food fresh.  While they do want the store to be organized, convenience is not considered.  Most stores want their customers passing by everything in the store, every time they come in.  That is why most often, pharmacy in the front, milk in the back, produce on one side, alcohol on the other side.  Usually, almost everything in the store is strategically placed.

Forms of text and images are no different.  What I found interesting was that Kress & Van Leeuwen connected the left and right, Given and New aspect to language.  Pages are stressed the same way that words are when we talk.

This ad is an excellent example.  Chipotle used salience here to draw attention to the only four important words: our ingredients are better.




Disussion Question: What is the difference between salience and framing?