Unreadable: the pictorial side of text elements

ABSTRACT Media design knows various ways to combine text and pictorial elements in layouts. This article looks at photographs that are combined with hard-to-read text elements and investigates, whether these text elements are seen as disturbing or confusing or should rather be understood as visual elements similar to meaningful props. Qualitative interviews and a survey were conducted showing the test persons several layouts with and without hard-to-read text elements and asking for their impressions and evaluation on various dimensions such as ‘boring-interesting’, ‘old-fashioned-modern’, and ‘clear-confusing’. It becomes obvious that the Gestalt theory’s fundamental assumption ‘the whole is more than the parts’ also applies in this context, even though these pictures actually violate Gestalt-rules: layouts with hard-to-read text elements were not only perceived as more interesting, but also the literal meaning of the text played a subordinate role compared to the associations evoked by their look.