Social Gender Construction Under the Effect of Visual Culture and Its Manifestation in Graphic Design

Abstract

Culture is the collection of unwritten norms enabling people to live in harmony and order from the past to the present. Having started with images, visual communication later continued via speech and text. Despite presenting itself in a myriad of ways throughout the ages, in this age of technology, there is an increased trend towards nonverbal communication among modern people racing against time. Visual culture is how the cultural perspective that changes dependent on technology is structured via visual siege. As one bonus of visual culture, social gender perceptions shift with quick acceleration. Speed-message algorithm provided for developing mass communication tools opened the doors to visibility from producer to consumer. Graphic design tools that manage this algorithm best effectively in this age act as salient message carriers. As they manage social perception with constructed designs, they also provide space and income to the consumer. The aim of this study is to seek an answer to the question, “What are the manifestations of visual culture reflections on the graphic design domain with its interaction on social gender?”. Accordingly, eight pieces of magazine advertisement graphics analyzed via the survey model have been examined according to Van Dijk’s “discourse analysis” model. Through the discourse analysis method, advertisement graphic samples studied in this research have been evaluated within the context of constructed micro and macro structures that were re-adapted in line with graphic design principles. Microstructures are analyzed according to typography and font styles, color use, and holistic construct in design, while macro structures are included in the research according to pictograms and symbols, active and passive sentence structures, and visual use. In light of the detected findings, it is suggested that advertisement graphics in hand change according to past and present-day, but in both periods, visual elements are prepared by utilizing social gender perceptions efficiently.