How much visual power can a magazine take?

Abstract

Visual power is the degree of visual stimulus emanating from a given design; the higher the stimulus, the greater the degree for attracting attention. First described by Baird in 1993, it was used as a method for attributing degrees of design aesthetic in print materials. The visual grammar used by different magazine publications can be ascribed differing levels of visual power. Magazines with homogeneous age group readerships tend to use greater values of visual power than those with wider age group readerships. This pilot case study takes a historical snapshot of the development of visual grammar and illustrates its relationship. Two magazines, The Australian Women's Weekly and The Face, are used for a more detailed study on 16 years of variations in arousal potential, hedonic tone and primary cognition associated with the application of visual power in visual grammar.