The rhetoric of neutrality. Again. Revisiting Kinross in an era of typographic homogenisation globalisation

dc.contributor.authorRath, Kyle A.
dc.contributor.emailkyle.rath@up.ac.zaen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2021-07-05T08:13:40Z
dc.date.available2021-07-05T08:13:40Z
dc.date.issued2020
dc.description.abstractOver the past forty years, studies concerning visual rhetoric have become increasingly prevalent, seeping into multiple areas of research, from visual studies to architecture and design. Robin Kinross’s The rhetoric of neutrality is arguably one of the most influential pieces on visual rhetoric in design. The article was published in 1985, alongside Richard Buchanan’s Declaration by design: Rhetoric, and demonstration in design practice and marks an important moment in design and particularly typographic design. The article mirrors sentiments from postmodern typographic design, where stiff modernist grids, formulaic layouts and neutral letterforms were fervently outcast. Central to this paper is Kinross’s rejection that any visual medium can be described as neutral. From the mid-2010s, there seems to have been a renewed interest in “neutral” typographic application. In pursuit of “accessibility”, designers and design agencies working in the spheres of branding, motion, advertising and user-experience steadily strip letterforms of their distinctive characteristics; purging them of cultural symbolism to satisfy a kind of “global palate”. In this paper, I revisit Kinross’s treatise on neutrality and explore possible reasons for a renewed interest within “neutral” letterforms within a global context.en_ZA
dc.description.departmentVisual Artsen_ZA
dc.description.librarianpm2021en_ZA
dc.description.urihttps://journals.co.za/journal/imtexten_ZA
dc.identifier.citationRath, K. 2020, 'The rhetoric of neutrality. Again. Revisiting Kinross in an era of typographic homogenisation globalisation', Image and Text, vol. 34. pp. 1-35.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn1021-1497 (print)
dc.identifier.issn2617-3255 (online)
dc.identifier.other10.17159/2617-3255/2020/n34a23
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/80713
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherUniversity of Pretoriaen_ZA
dc.rights© This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.en_ZA
dc.subjectVisual rhetoricen_ZA
dc.subjectTypographyen_ZA
dc.subjectRobin Kinrossen_ZA
dc.subjectRhetoric of neutralityen_ZA
dc.subjectDesignen_ZA
dc.subjectGlobalismen_ZA
dc.titleThe rhetoric of neutrality. Again. Revisiting Kinross in an era of typographic homogenisation globalisationen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA

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