Color rhetoric: The social construction of neutrality in real estate design

Abstract

Many interior designers believe that the key to selling a house is using conventionally labeled neutral colors. Yet, in relying solely on what convention dictates as a universal real estate rule, designers are promoting an ideology that privileges conventional standards to audience analysis, and consequently, call into question the usefulness of their own careers. Using Lloyd Bitzer's rhetorical situation principles, this thesis will analyze pictures taken from homes on the real estate market. Examining these pictures will establish the concept of neutrality as a rhetorical social construction that is shaped within historical, social, and cultural contexts. Moreover, this thesis presents the real estate process as a rhetorical situation in which it is the designer's responsibility as the rhetor to convey the values of neutrality in a manner that addresses the needs of potential buyers and persuades them to act.

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