According to Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips’ Graphic Design: The New Basics texture “corresponds with [the designs] visual function.” In Lynda Barry’s “What It Is” we are taken through a series of short excerpts on her childhood and pages in between that contemplate the concepts of her experiences. She questions what it is to even have an experience, and what elements make up the things she remembers.

This page in particular contemplates “What is Attachment?” At this point in the graphic novel, Barry is questioning how she grew out of the playful mindset she had as a child. She uses a textural harmony and contrast to emphasize certain thoughts running through her mind. Images like the dark figure with a flower and the creature with a seashell on it’ head have a sort of color harmony, but are separated by other pasted elements such as cutout images (the bunny) drawings (the squirrel and owl-cat), and various clippings of text.

These contrasting images are effective because they allow us to understand the concepts Barry is introducing to us. Like how she struggles with recaptures her playful youth, she is inviting us to recapture ours by “playing”-making sense of the visual text in our own words.

Page 94 of Lynda Barry’s “What It Is”