Worth a Thousand Words
Context is something that we web and graphic designers deal with on a daily basis. We juggle color, typeface, imagery, C.R.A.P.(Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity) to convey a particular message or tone.
Our clients aren’t watching as we sift through two hundred pages on iStock or play with seemingly indiscernible color variations in kuler to find just the right photo or palette to set the mood of their homepage. We don’t do it to run up the hours, we do it because we care, because we understand how powerful a single image or choice of color can impact people. Yes, I’m going somewhere with this.
Reading through my nightly routine of news sites to see what’s going on in our world, I came across an article about the Pope criticizing the pursuit of money and success in regards to the current financial mess. But I never got past the headline. Why?
I have a hard time taking someone seriously, the Pope included, speaking about the evils of wealth and material possessions when framed with a picture of that person decked out in ornately decorated robes, a bejeweled mitre and holding a staff of gold.
While I’m positive that whoever paired that image with the article clearly just grabbed the first stock photo on hand, it’s clearly completely contradictory to the context of the article. I’m sure the BBC has more than one photo of Pope Benedict XVI, it’s just inexcusable that whoever posted that news item on a massive professional journalism website didn’t take 30 seconds grab a more appropriate photograph for the message.
Instead of a potentially introspective take on the current banking fiasco, we get a “let them eat cake“ moment that’s just embarrassing to the BBC and the Pope.
One wrong picture is really all it takes to warp your message. It’s worth the extra few minutes.
I think I should mention that there’s no message intended here other than the power of context.
Any comment not relevant not discussing context will be deleted. Cool?
★ Brendan · 07/10/08 01:00 AM · #
What if the person who chose the photo got the reaction from you that they intended? There are plenty of “fallen Catholics” in the world who like to point out, either blatantly or subliminally, hypocrisy within the church.
I’m not disagreeing with you about context at all. I’m just wondering if there wasn’t a method to the madness here as it is always a possibility that the photo’s effect was right on target, by using such a stark contrast.
Of course your scenario could be 100% accurate, too. ;-)
→ Bridget Stewart · 07/10/08 09:20 AM · #
Oh dang that is funny. I would imagine anything that goes on the BBC site has to go through at least one layer or editing before going up, possible more which makes the pairing of the headline and pontiff that much bigger of a slip.
→ Brad C · 07/10/08 03:04 PM · #
@Bridget: That is a very real possibility, which I totally was trying to duck here :D
I’d be lying if I said my cynical mind didn’t consider it. But like I mentioned, not the point I was trying to make here. That’s a can of worms for another day
★ Brendan · 17/10/08 01:43 AM · #
Very insightful post. Like Bridget, I also thought that perhaps the image was meant to be sarcastic. One never knows, but I tend to think that your assumption that it was just the first stock image available is correct.
Sometimes details like this don’t occur to us, and we do need to be reminded to pay close attention.
→ Dana Kashubeck · 18/10/08 05:27 PM · #