Unit 16: Layout of advertisements
Information value and salience

Kress and van Leeuwen define "compositon" as the relation of the "representational and interactive meanings of the picture to each other" through interrelated systems of information value, salience and framing. Framing, as discussed in Unit 15, connects or differentiates elements of layout through elements that imply division or by actual frame lines. Here we concentrate on systems of information value and salience, as defined below. Based on Kress and van Leeuwen, p. 208. Information value Elements placed in specific "zones" of an image carry corresponding informational values. The division of the page into left and right, top and bottom, and center and margins define these zones. The image to the left summarizes the zones and their corresponding informational values: given and new, ideal and real, nucleus and dependents. Salience Elements are given varying levels of salience---they attract the viewer's attention to different degrees. Salience is created through relative choices in color, size, sharpness and placement. Often, vectors created by the shape and placement of elements help lead the eye from one element to another, in order of decreasing salience.