Visual+Literacy+Critique


 * This is a visual, followed by my critique of it's effectiveness. When teaching, I will be sure remember the knowledge I've gained through the PAT model during this assignment. I will think about each aspect of my visuals, and how they come accross to students, to maximize their effectiveness. **

 ﻿ This visual is showing that Americans are “overproteined.” It reiterates that statement with facts about how many Big Macs, how much chicken, and how many hotdogs we eat. For each statistic it names Americans, and the stats are surprising numbers, 127 chickens per second, 20 billion hotdogs per year etc. There are also pictures of the foods named, and mention of KFC and McDonalds. The image seems to partially be blaming the fast food industry for this epidemic. I think this image is trying to show the viewer that Americans consume too much protein. This image uses gestalt, from the PAT model. The aspect of gestalt used is proximity. The statistics are in a good proximity away from each other and separated by lines. It is a figure image, and is not hierarchical. There is contrast between the bold outlines where the title lays, and the statistics. Each stat is backed by a different color, also showing contrast, but the writing is all in black, which shows that they’re of equal importance. The stats are also aligned together, reinforcing their equality. I think the design is generally effective, but I would make some changes. The pictures seem like an afterthought, and don’t align well with the text. The two top images are higher than the title, “overproteined” which makes it less effective. I think the title should be larger, and raised above the rest of the image. When I first looked at the image, I was drawn to the pictures and the stats, and then noticed the title last, as I was looking for some kind of cohesive idea for the image.