Selling Lies Just By the Way They Look, Exploring Graphic Design’s Visual Lexicon of Authority

As a former criminal prosecutor, I observed how complex, technical legal language was leveraged in documents to exert influence and control over individuals. But now, as a designer, I recognize how imbalanced power structures are similarly perpetuated through visual lexicons. The components historically used to convey legal authenticity—such as blackletter or typewriter typography, official symbols and seals, metallic foils, embossing, patterned borders, serial numbering, signatures, and hand calligraphy—carry symbolic weight and persuasive authority. While designed to signal legitimacy, these visual devices can also be exploited to create a false sense of urgency, obligation, or fear.

The graphic language of a document, through centuries of reinforcement, has an influence over our emotions and, often, our behavior pursuant to receiving or seeing these documents, as much as the words contained within them. We have been trained over time to automatically accept certain visual features and systems in a document as immediate proof of its legal power and authenticity. Without even reading the verbiage, the visual lexicon & graphic imagery has already influenced our perception.

This project explores how the visual system of authority, crafted to instill trust in and ensure the veracity of a document, can be co-opted to create emotional reactions and elicit behaviors from people.

Words carry deep and specific meaning, but so also do the visual lexicons of design carry serious implications. Not only do we need to select our written words carefully, but our visual language as well.