Sagmeister Lecture—Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far

So here’s my “review” of the Sagmeister lecture last night.

Summary:

This was my first AIGA design lecture and my second AIGA event (I went to the 50 Books/50 Covers opening at Chronicle Books last fall), and overall, I’m pleased with the event (good job putting the event together, Amy et al!). The reception was nice with good appetizer things and a fine selection of refreshments. Sagmeister was wonderful, and that’s probably still true sans my huge-fan bias towards his work.

The Rest

I should, though, advise those who haven’t gone to a lot of these events to bring at least one friend to these things, especially if you’re shy like me. I was so excited about Sagmeister speaking in SF that I immediately bought a ticket without thinking about bringing someone or asking any of my designer friends to go with me (partly because almost none of my designer friends knew of Stefan Sagmeister and his work, which was sad in and of itself).

While I think Stefan’s work is always brilliant and inspiring, I thought that the presentation was “normal” and expected, but only probably because I’m already familiar with many pieces of his “Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far ” project through the design blogs and a lot of his transcribed and video interviews online. Watching him and his work on stage was almost just like watching those video interviews and reading the blogs, which was why his presentation felt “normal” and “expected,” except for that part in the beginning when he suddenly started smelling urine on stage and assured us that it wasn’t him and said that “I don’t pee in my pants.” That pretty much effectively broke the ice from the start!

In any case, even if I’m not a fan and don’t know much about Sagmeister, I still think I would be fascinated by how extremely creative and outside-the-box this designer is. I mean, the lady who sat next to me and said she didn’t know much about Sagmeister except for the body-cutting mailer was teary after the presentation and said that it was inspiring.

I was confused as to why only the side projectors showed the images but the middle one did not. I figured it might have to do with wanting to show the name of the lecture series since it was being recorded, but the entire middle section (where I was) had to look around the wooden columns to see the images on the screen.

Personally, I wish there was more time for questions after his presentation, but I understand that the presentation had already gone over the allotted time and he still had to sign a long line of books before ending the evening. Speaking of his book, I also wish I had gotten up immediately after the presentation to get his book at the table when he was answering questions so I could get him to sign it afterwards. Maybe I will do that next time, whenever that is, because I know this won’t be the last time I watch him speak in person.

Lecture Review Main Points and Advice:

• The event was good and enjoyable.
• Go with friends (at least one) and socialize.
• Buy the book if you already knew you want it, and then get it signed.

Flush.

Voting is Confusing

So I got my sample ballot and Vote-By-Mail ballot in the past two days, and I couldn’t help but notice the continuing lack of good visual and information design in these election documents.

Front Cover

Let’s start with the front cover. There just seems to be just too much information. The key word is seems. There’s actually not that much information, but it’s just arranged on the page so that it looks like a lot. In terms of the white arrows, the left one points to the improper outlining of type (more on that on the next image). The top right points to what I believe to one of the many instances when they unnecessarily stretched the type. And the bottom arrow points to just too many individually centered type that together ironically lacks unity.

This is a close up of the front cover. Notice the gray outline around the yellow “Non-partisan” all against a lighter gray background. While at first glance, the solution of “NO OUTLINED TYPE!” immediately came to me, but when I realize that if the outline wasn’t there, the yellow would start to get lost in the light gray. The easiest, cleanest solution I have for it (at least as a start) is to have a darker gray background. No, it won’t match the gray of “non-partisanship” that the cover takes on, but it’s definitely the same hue (or lack thereof) so it’s not a big deal if it’s not the same shade of gray.

On Outlined Type: Ever since Davis, I had learned that outlined type is bad. But since leaving Davis, I’ve become more tolerant of outlining type, while still conservative compared to the billions of commercial type I’ve seen. Outline type is not evil; it’s just abused.

Voting’s so cool, it’s like a magazine!

Anyone want another card-stock half-page that inherently reminded me of the same kinds in magazines? I know, they want to save paper, blah blah. But they should not stick them in the middle of spreads like that. Give it its own space and people will not ignore it like I had (except for taking this photo).

Technical Stuff

Elements outside the lines when they’re not meant to. This makes me think of the first one or two Illustrator class assignments that students would produce (for some people, it’s in all projects). This would not happen under my watch. “If I were elected San Mateo County’s next sample ballot designer, I promise to make sure that all lines would not stick out of their containers like hangnail!”

The second image involves grammar. Being a Grammar N-word (the other N-word). This is more upsetting than the hangnail. I am beginning to be convinced that this document is made entirely in Illustrator, because of the use of Myriad as its body typeface, the hangnail, and now, the missing closing quotation mark typical of the “designing on the spot” spirit of the designer who does not look back for accuracy. The right arrow is where the quoting began, and the left arrow is where the quoting is supposed to stop. “If I were elected San Mateo County’s next sample ballot designer, I will make sure that the disappearance of closing quotation marks will seize, and I will pass legislation to make sure that there will be No Quote Marks Left Behind.

Voting is Like, So Kewl!

This is the deal sealer (“seal-dealer?”) about Illustrator. Preset strokes to make it look like you used a wax pencil to draw that arrow, and then your pencil suddenly turned into a pen, and your handwriting has identical k’s and e’s and pretty much every letter in the alphabet.

Oh, and look, the new electronic voting system is just like an iPod! How cool! Voting is so cool, all the kids are doing it!

The Important Stuff

This probably has the least problem, because it’s not about color, and it’s not about being “cool.” It’s about the content that has stood the test of time, constantly perfecting the best layout. Even so, I think there’s still the problem of overall typographic arrangement. Maybe they’re doing this to be neutral and as boring as possible because it’s the actual ballot design, but the lack of contrast in type confuses me and causes more frustration than it should.

Set in Helvetica Roman or something, there are only four font sizes to distinguish all words, and all but the smallest font are set in caps. My problem with this is that the separation of one question with another is very subtle, by a single line, the same width of line used to separate names of districts, which I have no idea what they mean (See top of image). I’m sure it’s important to display that information, but how should that relate to the actual reading of the proposition descriptions below that?

Those three lines for the district names completely distracted me from the Instructions for the ballot, which is more important to me as a voter to know how to do this right and not where in the state I’m doing it, because I know where I am. A simple solution I could think of is to just make those lines between propositions thicker and not the same width of the type stroke. It shows that this is the end of this proposition, and this is the start.

The other problem is the names of the proposition of category being hidden into the rest of the entry, and if I get lost in thinking about the proposition’s pros and cons, I might accidentally subconsciously fill in No for the previous question just because I see the current question closer to the Yes/No boxes. While they obviously give generous whitespace to show the Yes/No boxes, I think they should be next to or below the proposition number and not right before the next one, so they know for sure they’re voting for the right choice.

Too Much Red

I’m gonna go for a guess that they used red as an emphasis of things you should do before sealing the envelope and mailing it in. But this is a ridiculous amount of red type and lines and boxes. Emphases are meant to emphasize a limited amount of the most important thing(s), not everything you think is sorta, kinda important.

What Am I Looking at?

And finally, the back cover. What am I looking at? Did you know there’s a perforation across the middle where you tear off and mail it in to get a Vote-by-Mail ballot? Did you know that before I told you? And did you know what is the most important information you should know as a voter on this back cover? I haven’t found it yet, because I don’t want to look at it for more than three seconds at a time, kind of like the sun.

I realize that I sound really cynical and sarcastic with this pamphlet to a point of appearing arrogant and cocky, but I’m just upset that an official government publication failed to uphold the highest standards in print design, be it aesthetically, like the outlined type and the red-emphases-saturated envelope, or technically, like the missing closing quotation mark (which led me to think that you didn’t proofread this government document or any government document.

I can’t promise that as a beginner designer I can produce the best sample ballot pamphlet, because I know some of these problems involve a lot of bureaucracy and politics as well as dealing with many people who think they know what the best design should be, based on their own interests. But I can say that I would do my best to make sure that little (yet representative) problems like this don’t appear.

It’s interesting to see that the Polling Place Photo Project is continuing and growing via New York Times. I’d like to see a similar project in the documents involved in the voting process.

Flush.

Those Who Can’t Do

“Those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t teach, judge.”

The first part is a common saying, and I made up the second part. If this was true, I wonder if those who judge are the public. And is it fitting for design?

Now, of course, those who can do can also teach and judge. It’s one of those category-within-category concepts: Everyone can judge; some can teach; a few can do/design.

This came to me when my family and I were watching this Taiwanese show with an American Idol-derived competition for magic, where the judges were really critical on the contestants’ performances. I’m sure the judges had some experience with performing magic, but what about the judges out there who can’t do whatever task they’re judging?

I often picture situations where a contestant, or student, is being critiqued by judges or teachers for not doing something well, and he or she comes back with, “Why don’t I see you try to do that?” (I know I thought about this many times at swim practices in high school after hearing the coaches’ criticism.)

So is the opening statement valid, in general and in design?

Flush.