A influência da cor na interpretação da mensagem em capas monocromáticas de livros.

Abstract

This study is in the field of Information Design, and has book covers as object of study analyzed from the perspective of color. Taking in account that for almost one third of Brazilian readers the theme of the book is the main factor for its selection, and that a significant amount of the readers choose a book by its cover, it should be highlighted the importance of the book cover for identifying the subject of the book. The colors may suggest meanings derived from cultural and social associations, however, there is limited understanding concerning its interference in understanding visual messages. This study is exploratory and aims to check if the color of the book cover interferes in the identification of the subject of the book by the readers. The research methodology was divided into two stages: visual analysis and experiment. The first stage was based on fundamental concepts of Gestalt theory to select the corpus of the research and in semiotics concepts for the semantic analysis of the graphic image. Four covers were selected that met the following criteria: (1) monochromatic compositions, (2) high degree of pregnancy, (3) without indication of the subject of the book through images and / or texts. For the experiment, two online questionnaires were used, answered by two different groups of 100 literate adults each. For Group A, the questionnaires contained images of the book covers in their original colors; while the Group B observed images of the same covers with the colors modified by software. After viewing the cover images, the participants were asked to indicate the subjects dealt with in the books and justifying their answers. Due to the great dispersion observed in the responses, it was found that the design of the tested covers generated ambiguity in identifying the thematic of the books. However, the differences observed in the answers indicate that there was some influence of symbolic associations of colors in the interpretation of the subject of the books by the readers, since it is the only variable among the questionnaires. It was possible to conclude, in the scope of this research, that the use of color with approximation to the semantic field of the theme proved to be relevant for the production of meanings related to the content of the work, through visualization of the cover. The results indicate that the influence of colors for the production of meanings may vary according to their relationship with other visual elements and the entire context of the graphic composition.