I chose this picture to analyze as I was curious how phone manufacturers manage to keep their advertisements for phones fresh, considering how phones are all similar in form factor: rectangular, and screen in front. Not only keeping each iteration of their own phones feeling new, but also distinct from each other brand essentially doing the same thing.
Rhetorical Situation
Audience
- People who are interested in buying a new mobile phone (both returning and new customers). The intended audience may have extensive knowledge about consumer technology, or none.
Context
- Will mostly be viewed on common marketing mediums such as billboards, web advertising, magazines, conventions, store promo posters, etc. Will mostly be seen in passing, without a lot of time spent looking at the image. Could be seen in public, or on a computer in a home.
Purpose
- To spread awareness that the new iteration of the Galaxy series has been released and cause interest. To solidify the design of the phone in consumer minds and make it recognizable it in public, increasing product presence.
Gestalt Principles/Visual Cohesion
Grouping
- Similarity: the background is filled with identical phones that are perfectly aligned for a satisfying aesthetic.
- Proximity: phones fit together in a pattern to form a flat surface, forming the background.
- Division: the phone in the middle of the image is raised to give depth. The bottom of the phone is separated further from the other phones.
- Symmetry: cutting the image in half vertically would result in a perfectly symmetrical image minus the text.
- Continuity: the reflection of light on the left side of the image spans across multiple phones in the background. It is broken up by the borders of the phones, but guide the viewer’s eye diagonally downwards though the image.
- Figure-ground contrast is apparent in the text of the image; and serves as part of the focal point since the colourful screen contrasts strongly against the dark background and vice-versa.
- Visual noise: this image avoids as much visual noise as possible, keeping a smooth and curved aesthetic to better portray the brand and product.
Works Cited
Telstra Exchange. (n.d.). Samsung S10 Advertisement. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://exchange.telstra.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/beyond_announcement_coverphoto_fb_1650x630_190214.jpg.
Technical Kevin 
