WHATS IN MY BAG

1.  ABP Cup

• Visual- the cup has a yellow banner that wraps around most of it and uses two different, interesting fonts to contribute to the look
• Linguistic- the cup advertises the it’s from Au Bon Pain and says it’s a cafe bbakery

2. Hokie Passport

• Visual- orange borders and maroon text that represent Virginia Tech’s colors; the background is Hokie Stone
• Spatial- it is laid out clearly so that my photo, name, student ID number and birthday are easy to read
• Gestural- there is no movement in the picture, but my face suggest that I’m happy

3. Lotion Bottle

• Visual- has picture of flower, vanilla bean, is shiny and metallic
• Spatial- the images and texts are laid out in a pretty arrangement
• Linguistic- the writing on the bottle describes what type of lotion it is and where it’s from

4. Hand Sanitizer

• Visual- the label depicts that it is cookie dough flavored by having a chocolate chip cookie in the background; also has some pretty purple elements
• Linguistic: the words on the bottle say what it is

5. Name tag

• Visual- green in color, small
• Linguistic- has my name written on it; says what organization I’m in

6. Antibacterial Hand Wipes

• Visual- uses a variety of colors and font styles and sizes
• Spatial- the layout separates the brand name from the description of the product
• Linguistic- includes words like “fresh scent,” “antibacterial” and the brand, “Wet Ones”

7. Technical Editing Book

• Visual- the cover includes an interesting triangular graphic; is blue and green; uses a variety of fonts and font sizes
• Spatial- the arrangement of the words is clear and suggests that the most important information is at the top, center of the cover and is in the biggest font
• Linguistic- communicates what the book is about, what edition it is and who wrote it

8. Lilly Pulitzer Planner

• Visual- bright, colorful cover; small in size
• Linguistic- tells the brand of the planner and the dates it extends to
• Spacial- the words are arranged so that they have less dominance on the cover than the pattern

9. Wallet

• Visual- slightly large for a wallet; black and white design
• Spatial- has different sections on the inside that help organize the contents of the waller

10. Trident Gum

• Visual- red and white; picture of cinnamon sticks; small in size
• Spatial- the words are arranged so that they are pretty prominent; the cinnamon sticks are also pretty prominent but the words run over the picture a little
• Linguistic- is advertised as cinnamon and sugar free; has the brand name on it

11. Kleenex pack

• Visual- pretty visually appealing with blues, greens and white pictures of a city sketched onto the outside of the pack; the brand name is on the pack but isn’t overwhelming big, is kind of subtle.
• Linguistic- has brand name; advertises how many tissues are in the pack
• Gestural- is easy to move around and is pretty portable

All of the contents in my backpack had at least some kind of visual and linguistic elements. It’s pretty impossible for something to not have visual elements, but I’m slightly confused on what gestural elements are. Different items had different spatial alignment depending on the look the designer was going for, but it was interesting to see why some things were designed the way there were. I learned that there are a lot of different things that can be considered “texts” and that they all communicate different purposes.