It's Manga & Rhetoric Design!
A Must Read:
May 3, 2018
Manga: What is it?
All over the world, you will see a little book that has an interesting cover to what is considered the “front”. However, in Japanese culture, what American’s consider the “front” of a book is actually the back of the comic book. This is the same for the “back” which is actually the front for all manga created. In Japan, a text is read from right to left unlike America and many other countries who read left to right. Each panel created is read right to left however the text is read left to right for American translated copies of all manga. With the term “manga”, it refers to both comics and cartooning in Japan (Wikipedia).
Within the United States, many believe that comics are for kids and is appropriate for all ages to read. This is true for manga as well. With the manga that publishes in Japan and the U.S. “the kiddie stuff tends not to be as simple-minded as the American versions… it will sometimes depict death --- while the U.S. (on children’s TV) seems determined to run away from such realities of life” (Rei). Manga also focuses more on the daily lives of its characters than U.S. comics doing the opposite (Rei). With Japanese manga, the style of it is unique only to Japan while it is also easy to distinguish it from any other style, such as the comics from America.
All over the world, you will see a little book that has an interesting cover to what is considered the “front”. However, in Japanese culture, what American’s consider the “front” of a book is actually the back of the comic book. This is the same for the “back” which is actually the front for all manga created. In Japan, a text is read from right to left unlike America and many other countries who read left to right. Each panel created is read right to left however the text is read left to right for American translated copies of all manga. With the term “manga”, it refers to both comics and cartooning in Japan (Wikipedia).
Within the United States, many believe that comics are for kids and is appropriate for all ages to read. This is true for manga as well. With the manga that publishes in Japan and the U.S. “the kiddie stuff tends not to be as simple-minded as the American versions… it will sometimes depict death --- while the U.S. (on children’s TV) seems determined to run away from such realities of life” (Rei). Manga also focuses more on the daily lives of its characters than U.S. comics doing the opposite (Rei). With Japanese manga, the style of it is unique only to Japan while it is also easy to distinguish it from any other style, such as the comics from America.
With manga, it is published in a magazine that has other series in it. Each magazine gives a series 20 pages to use and the magazine itself can range from 200 to 900 pages.* Manga can also be published in a volume that contains a few chapters or on a website dedicated to reading Manga as well.
*Art of Drawing Manga
*Art of Drawing Manga
Rhetoric: What is it?
When creating a text, there needs to be a purpose that persuades an audience. Rhetoric is defined in Chapter 2 of Writer/Designer: A Guide to Making Multimodal Projects as "the study of making texts that effectively persuade an audience toward change" . Rhetoric itself, can also be "commonly understood as the art of persuasion or effect-oriented communication" (“Design Rhetoric: Studying the Effects of Designed Objects”)
Within Rhetoric, there is Rhetoric Design. In Chapter 2 of Writer/Designer: A Guide to Making Multimodal Projects, it states that design choices support the author's rhetorical situation. Within the choices to be made, there are five key design concepts to be considered: emphasis, contrast, organization, alignment, and proximity. Each of these are important when creating a multimodal project.
Rhetoric Design or Design Rhetoric "addresses the effects of artifacts and especially the techniques by which they can be generated and controlled in the design process" (“Design Rhetoric: Studying the Effects of Designed Objects”) It also could be defined as " the attempt to explain - in terms of the concepts and strategies known from rhetorical theory and practice- how and by which formal means designed things influence us" (“Design Rhetoric: Studying the Effects of Designed Objects”).
When creating a text, there needs to be a purpose that persuades an audience. Rhetoric is defined in Chapter 2 of Writer/Designer: A Guide to Making Multimodal Projects as "the study of making texts that effectively persuade an audience toward change" . Rhetoric itself, can also be "commonly understood as the art of persuasion or effect-oriented communication" (“Design Rhetoric: Studying the Effects of Designed Objects”)
Within Rhetoric, there is Rhetoric Design. In Chapter 2 of Writer/Designer: A Guide to Making Multimodal Projects, it states that design choices support the author's rhetorical situation. Within the choices to be made, there are five key design concepts to be considered: emphasis, contrast, organization, alignment, and proximity. Each of these are important when creating a multimodal project.
Rhetoric Design or Design Rhetoric "addresses the effects of artifacts and especially the techniques by which they can be generated and controlled in the design process" (“Design Rhetoric: Studying the Effects of Designed Objects”) It also could be defined as " the attempt to explain - in terms of the concepts and strategies known from rhetorical theory and practice- how and by which formal means designed things influence us" (“Design Rhetoric: Studying the Effects of Designed Objects”).
For my Final Project, I will be looking at how designing Manga correlates to Rhetoric design choices. The purpose of my project is to analyze the apparent relationship between Manga and Rhetoric design choices while informing people of what goes into creating a manga.