Cited: http://www.world-mysteries.com/sci_17_vm.htm
Rhetorical Analysis: The Vitruvian Man is an image created by Leonardo Da Vinci to demonstrate the perfect measurements and alignments of the human body. His audience was scholars and intellectuals to demonstrate how science had worked to make an organism that was optimally suited for survival by being properly aligned. The image has been circulated for centuries and was even put on the side of satellites for if an alien race found said image they would have an idea of what we looked liked. The image is prized as a piece of Da Vinci’s intelligence in understanding how the human body is theoretically perfectly formed.
Design Analysis: Alignment is one of the most important but most overlooked facts in web design. Da Vinci mastered the art of alignment centuries ago and recognized that alignment does not only appear in design but in real life. The possible reason for why alignment is so important for web design is possibly because alignment is seen everywhere. People like what is familiar the Vitruvian Man may not be an advertisement but it reflects exactly what advertisements aim for. They aim to give you the same thing you have seen a million times before to make you feel comfortable than package their product in a slightly different way to convince consumers they need their product. Alignment is generally overlooked because it is simple to perform but it is important that items are aligned properly to draw the viewer’s attention to the right area. Imagine how the image would fail if the arms were where the legs were and vice versa the alignment would be wrong and you would no longer recognize the human body. The key to alignment is recognizing important information as it is aligned to where the viewer will look.