The International Journal of Visual Design Volume , Issue , 20, https://designprinciplesandpractices.com © Common Ground Research Networks, Melissa McMullen, All Rights Reserved. Permissions: cgscholar.com/cg_support ISSN: 2325-1581 (Print), ISSN: 2325-159X (Online) KWWSVGRLRUJ&*3YL (Article) The Eastern/Western Cultural Divide: A Visual Content Analysis of Printed Graphic Design Melissa McMullen, 1 Trinity University, USA Abstract: This article broadly explores how forces of globalization have altered visual language. It considers whether there is still a division between Eastern and Western visual languages, as suggested by previous research in both cultural psychology and cross-cultural graphic design. Specifically, this study used a visual content analysis to compare the use of key graphic design elements including layout, color, type, and image in design work from two Eastern countries (China and Japan) and two Western countries (Germany and the United Kingdom). The author gathered and coded 400 examples of printed graphic design work from the portfolio sharing website Behance. A series of Chi-square analyses were then used to statistically compare the use of the design elements from each of the countries. These analyses revealed that there are still differences between the visual languages of Western and Eastern countries today. However, the margin of difference was relatively small and contemporary graphic designers should not rely on older cultural models which generalize all Western or all Eastern visual languages as being similar. Keywords: Cross-Cultural Graphic Design, Eastern/Western Cultural Divide, Visual Content Analysis, Behance Introduction n 2003, cultural psychologist Richard Nisbett (2003) wrote an influential book describing the differences between how Easterners and Westerners think. Specifically, he discussed the cultural differences in visual perception that he and his colleagues had observed between Easterners and Westerners via multiple psychological experiments. While he noted that the reasons for these differences were rooted in each cultural group’s historical development, Nisbett (2003) also looked to the future. He outlined three possible outcomes for the future of our increasingly interconnected and globalized world: cultural convergence, divergence, and blending. Today, seventeen years after Nisbett (2003) considered these three possible outcomes, some important questions remain: Is there still an Eastern/Western cultural divide in visual language in the world? Or, has there been a convergence and/or blending of Eastern and Western visual languages? This study broadly explored how forces of globalization have altered visual language, specifically through the lens of printed graphic design. While there are multiple studies that have compared website design from Eastern and Western countries in order to demonstrate a cultural divide in visual language, many of these studies are more than a decade old. Furthermore, little similar work has been conducted related to cultural differences in the visual language of print design. As a result, it is unclear whether Eastern visual language is still different from Western visual language, as Nisbett (2003) demonstrated, or if the two have begun to converge and/or blend due to the increasingly globalized nature of the world. Without conducting a longitudinal study, it is not possible to make claims about the convergence or divergence of design tendencies. However, it is possible to examine how similar or different the use of graphic design elements is between Eastern and Western countries today. Accordingly, this study asked two research questions: 1) In a comparison of printed graphic design work from two Eastern and two Western countries, are there more differences between the two groups than within the groups? 2) If there are more differences noted between the two groups, what specific aspects of printed graphic design work vary most significantly? 1 Corresponding Author: Melissa McMullen, One Trinity Place, Department of Communication, San Antonio, TX, 78212, USA. email: mmcmulle@trinity.edu I Downloaded by Melissa McMullen on Wed Apr 07 2021 at 13:38:35 PM CDT