Branded: The sister arts of rhetoric and design

This article explores the potentially fruitful relationships between design education and rhetorical education. Teachers of rhetoric and teachers of design have much to learn from one another, yet they rarely interact. One way in which design and rhetoric should be informing one another is through the related concepts of branding, familiar to designers, and ethos, well known to rhetoricians. Branding is often important in design curricula; students learn to design products whose voice people are willing to bring into their lives. And branding has obvious connections to rhetorical ethos; Aritstotle’s tripartite concept of ethos can be used to deepen discussions of both ethos and branding, particularly focusing on the ethical dimensions of both. This article surveys literature on rhetorical ethos, presents practical classroom strategies for teaching ethos and describes the possible productive relationship between teaching rhetorical ethos alongside branding.