Abstract
This study investigates vernacular typography and images, as well as ‘high-end’ graphic art advertising murals, found in Katlehong Township, South Afrika, with the aim of demonstrating how these promotional signs construct a visual rhetoric that is embedded with connotations of conflicting township identities. Vernacular ‘signages’ are deeply expressive of township experience, in terms of local people, township economy, lifestyle, and a shared language, namely kasi lingo. Central to this local visual culture, which is applied to promote the services of spaza shops, supermarkets, barber shops and salons, is the use of language, expressed as letterforms, to signify ‘oneness’. ‘High-end’ advertising murals, on the other hand, seek to ‘remake’ the township by introducing Katlehong to a global community and instilling a brand-oriented township lifestyle...
M.A. (Graphic Design)