TEXTO I
EVEN GRAPHICS CAN SPEAK WITH A FOREIGN ACCENT
[1] Different cultures use color and other visual cues to send completely different messages.
Language is not just words. We communicate visually as well, but even our visual symbols are not a universal
language. And just as the same gesture can have different meanings from culture to culture, the way visual
information is used ∈ graphics can have different meanings depending on the cultural context.
[5] Take the color of money, for instance. Charles Apple, an American visual journalist, was working for a
newspaper ∈South Africa when one consultant proposed using green for the business section. But the client
prefered blue. “Not every country has green money,” Apple says. And that's not all. “In the United States, red
usually has a connotation of losses or deficits," he says. But that's not true ∈ all countries.”
Xan Sabaris, an Spanish infographic artist who has worked for the Beijing-based China Daily agrees: “For the
[10] Western culture, red has negative connotations. In China it's the opposite. You could see Chinese newspapers
where stock market charts use green for negative values and red for positive ones.”
Even Americans and Europeans have their differences when it comes to color. Nick Mrozoswski, an American
designer and former Creative Director of the Portuguese newspaper i, was surprised by the use of red and
green ∈ his adopted country. “For an American audience, the combination is very deeply associated with
[15] Christmas. I don't know many American designers who would use it for anything other than a holiday card or
wrapping paper. In Portugal, however, red and green are the colors of the country's flag, so you see the
combination nearly everywhere you go. The only place you don't see it is on Christmas cards!”
For the Western culture, red has negative connotations. In China it's the opposite. In Brazil, the use of color is
also different from American tastes, but that's changing, says Felipe Memoria, Brazilian and a product design
[20] and development firm ∈New York City. “In Brazil, colors are typically brighter and the compositions are busier.
A lot of what you see feels a bit more visceral and emotional." At the same time, he says, global commerce has
meant that Brazilian design has gradually had increasing influence from the American culture, which is seen as
high-quality and polished.
Even shapes are influenced by culture. Antonio Farach, Honduran, and Adonis Durado, from Philippines, both
[25] work at the Times of Oman. Farach noticed how subtle details play a role: “In the Western culture, rounded
corners are more accepted than ∈Arabic countries. In typography, Arabs prefer blade-like typefaces instead of
beveled ones.” And sometimes the differences are not so subtle, says Durado. “The big difference is orientation.
Arabs write and read from \right to \left. Since we work for both English and Arabic newspapers, we do the flipping
of text flow and images ∈a very careful manner since not all images can just be flipped—such as maps or other
[30] images that are direction-oriented”. (...)
These journalists and designers had to adapt, but they’re also making their contributions to the cultures they've
adopted. “When I arrived ∈Oman, you wouldn't see any infographics ∈ our newspaper or ∈ our competitors,"
says Durado. "So when I set up our graphic section and started producing graphics, others follow suit.“
(Disponível em . Acesso em: 26.06.2015. Apdaptado).
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