Tone of Voice...

In Visual Communication, everything has a tone of voice. From photography, typography, illustration and graphic design, every area tackles this area. It is important that every piece of work is properly connecting to the audience and that it is projecting the right message. 
Our eyes come across different types of font every 
day, and most of it has been properly designed to give the right message. As visual communicators, we are especially aware of how this has been made and experimented with to create the right statement. A great example of showing how a tone of voice is created is to juxtapose two words and show how presenting them differently can change their meaning. To the right I have made an example of this. The word 'bang' is very onomatopoeic, and the right font has to be chosen to show this. The first font works much better than the second one, I have purposely chosen a clear text emphasised by the boldness and the exclamation marks. However, the second font works much better for a work such as 'sssh', the opposite of bang. The font is very smooth and quite peaceful in itself, which works well for a word such as 'sssh' or 'quiet'. Each word has its own tone of voice and it is down to visual designers to chose the correct font  to make this tone clear to an audience.

Experimenting with different typefaces and their tones of voice has been happening since people started to use it for advertising purposes. In doing so, certain typefaces have become known for advertising specific brands. Plain, legible fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman and Verdana have be used for giving serious information. Documents such as application forms, cv's, letters, bills etc all use such fonts because they are clear and straight to the point. When we see such fonts around us, we recognize them as being formal, factual and informing us of some information.
Quite the opposite to this, some fonts ooze a sense of fun and playfulness. To the left is an example of such text. Fonts like these are taken less seriously by a reader, and we recognise them to be advertising something naive, child-like and fun entertainment. Fonts that have been used over generation now automatically have their own tone of voice. We now as visual communicators recognise such patterns and use the correct typefaces for the correct brand. 


Images also have a tone of voice, but are not so as apparent as text and fonts. 

This is a snapshot from a advert for, surprisingly, the Volvo XC90. Much opposed to a mechanical, man made car, the tone of voice in this image is very peaceful, tranquil and 'dream-like'. This particular setting has purposely been chosen in order to reflect such a feeling. It is actually the juxtaposition of the car and this setting that is it selling point. The photographer has allowed the person's mind to explore the image and picture themselves in such a place. the catch is, they need to buy the car first!