Purpose Statement and Design Plan

Abby Persicketti

Dr. Wielgos

College Writing II

Purpose Statement: The purpose of my rhetorical analysis is to show the audience how the creators of the posters of several Audrey Hepburn movies get across the plot of a movie using different elements such as the position of objects and words, color, and facial expressions. I want my audience to watch the movies after reading my analysis. I want them to also have a better understanding of why the posters were such a large part in making the movies successful.

Audience:  The audience is romantic movie lovers, Audrey Hepburn fans, and hopeless romantics.

Context: I am going to focus on three different parts of the posters. First, I will focus on how the text and typeface can relay a message about the movie. Second, I will focus on the facial expressions and body language of the characters on the poster. Third, I will focus on the colors and placement of everything on the poster.

The medium I will use is an academic paper on Microsoft Word with large images of the posters so the audience can see the details that I will be talking about.

The arrangement of the posters will be wrapped in the text that is speaking about them. The audience will be able to view the poster easily after they read the words talking about it.

Strategies:       Ethos: I will focus on the credibility that each designer of the poster has. I will research his or her history in art or school or the movie industry. This will help the audience know exactly who the creator is and what makes them qualified to make something as important for promoting a movie as the poster. The ethos the audience will be able to trust me and see that I am credible because I have seen all of the movie and I will also do my research on the creators of the posters as well as the time period.

Logos: I will analyze why the creator of the poster would do certain things on the poster. Such as, if it is logical to make a certain actors name larger than the name of the movie title just because he or she is friends with that actor, or if they did that because the popularity of the actor will draw in an audience to see the movie.  

Pathos: I will write about the effect that the certain color choices and words may have on the audience and why they will be drawn to see the movie. Many of the choices the creators of the posters make are to strike a chord in the audience to make them feel a certain way. Whether it’s a longing face because of forbidden love, or a smile because Audrey Hepburn is happy in the movie. There are plenty of ways the creator tries to make the audience feel using different elements of the poster. The audience will feel the love and the emotions of each story that I will be talking about through my use of imagery.