• Archives of design research
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.181-190
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• 2002

Rhetoric, simply defined, is the art of persuasion. Gui Bonsiepe, Robin Kinross, Hanno, Ehses and Richard Buchanan have all spoken of rhetoric as an element of the theory of design. St. Joost Academy in the Netherlands has tried to present the theory and practice of a new kind of designing based on rhetoric since 1995. Post-St Joost was the name of the experimental graduate programme. They adopted visual rhetoric as a matrix for setting up a new type of exercise and assignment in design education. In this paper, 1 have tried to show that rhetorical approach can play an important role in the development of a view of design as a discipline in its own right. The first chapter looks at the brief history of rhetoric in western culture. And the following chapter focuses on the development of design rhetoric and visual rhetoric in the twentieth century. 1 hope this essay will contribute to find the designerly way of knowing, thinking and doing.