Rhetoric as an ideation tool

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, and part of human communication that includes purposeful and strategic manipulation of signs and symbols, and whether in the form of written and spoken words or visual elements (verbal and visual rhetoric). Designers too, in communicating ideas, may use rhetoric when addressing  a particular audience, from design team members to clients to end users, in specific situations, from ideation sessions to pitching for work to public consultation, in order to win over the audience for their idea. Rhetoric, then, and particular visual rhetoric using images as sensory expressions of cultural meaning, can be seen as an ideation tool.

Instrument ideation rules?

Working with conceptual tools can be messy - for example, sketching using graphite, inks or colour paints, or modelling using scrap paper, wooden sticks, and glue. It might then be tempting to let go of messy or untidy conceptual tools, and fly the idea by digital instruments letting software show the way. But, and using the metaphor of instrument flight rules, designers, unlike pilots, do not typically operate under conditions in which ideation by outside visual reference is not safe. Although software guided ideation may appeal to improvement at micro level, for the bigger picture, which is not easily quantifiable, there can be no instrument ideation rules.