Page 46 - Graphic Design and Print Production Fundamentals

34 Chapter 2. Design Process
Hyperbole can be used to exaggerate one thing to show how it differs from something to which it is
being compared: This stuff is used motor oil compared to the coffee you make, my love.

Hyperbole is the most overused rhetorical device in the world (and that is no hyperbole); we are a society
of excess and exaggeration. Handle it like dynamite, and do not blow up everything you can find (Harris,
2013).

Metaphor compares two different things by relating to one in the same terms commonly used for the
other. Unlike a simile or analogy, metaphor proposes that one thing is another thing, not just that they
are similar (Harris, 2013).

Follow the link to see an example: Ikea Bigger Storage Idea

Metonymy is related to metaphor, where the thing chosen for the metaphorical image is closely related
to (but not part of) that with which it is being compared. There is little to distinguish metonymy from
synecdoche (as below). Some rhetoricians do not distinguish between the two (Harris, 2013).

Follow the link to see an example: London Logo

Oxymoron is a paradox presented in two words, in the form of an adjective and noun (“eloquent
silence”), or adverb-adjective (“inertly strong”), and is used to impart emphasis, complexity, or
wit (Harris, 2013). See Figure 2.3 for another example.

Figure 2.3 Example of an oxymoron

Personification attributes to an animal or inanimate object human characteristics such as form, character,
feelings, behaviour, and so on. Ideas and abstractions can also be personified. For example, in the poster
series linked below, homeless dogs are placed in environments typical of human homelessness (Harris,
2013).

Follow the link to see an example: Manchester Dogs’ Home Street Life

Simile is a comparison of one thing to another, with the two being similar in at least one way. In formal