Friday, March 22, 2013

reading today

I went past a Wendy's the other day and saw this on the wall.


It made me realize how the visual technology available to us--not just online, but all around us--makes reading a more multi-layered activity than it was in the past. This sign, for instance, can be read at least two ways (partly because of lack of punctuation and partly because of the visual choices of color):
* Quality is our recipe: Service that doesn't cut corners.
* Quality service that doesn't cut corners is our recipe.
The second reading allows for more emphasis on the play with recipe, but the colors suggest the first reading. And it occurs to me that other readers might punctuate these words differently, even if they keep the same structure. It's kind of fun actually (this was written by the nerdy me).

It just made me aware that advertisers are using all sorts of ways to have us read that keeps us engaged--and sometimes even wondering (which I guess is good for them!).

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