Annals of Bad Graphic Design
Jan 15th, 2008 by Micah Tillman | 12 Comments |
There people in your life who have changed you forever. One of those people for me was Tim, who taught me about graphic design. Ever since I’ve been critiquing people’s design choices left and right, writhing in pain whenever I see bad design, rejoicing whenever I see good.
I don’t have as good an eye for graphic design as Tim (nor do I have the training he’s had), so don’t blame my graphic design mistakes (or mistaken opinions) on him. But now that The Wife and I have a digital camera (thanks to the In-Laws and Christmas Day), I’ve decided to do a little catharsis. This is my first entry in that project.
Take the following book, which The Wife currently has out from the library:
It’s the job of a book’s cover to give you a glimpse into the world which the book is going to reveal to you (or into the world which the book inhabits). This cover tells us the world of the book is confusing, filled with both blues (=comfort) and red and yellows (=alarm).
The book’s world contains cluttered masses of people, who are important just because they happen to inhabit an odd-numbered place in the group (every other name is bolded, and yet there is no discernible order to the list). And evidently some of the less important people in this world are split in half (Helene Kassler’s name is unbolded and split between two lines).
This is a world in which Steve Forbes is everywhere (there is a quote attributed to him as being from the foreword at the top of the cover, and he is again mentioned as having written the foreword at the bottom of the cover). But Forbes is emphatically present only in some places (his name is in yellow [=alarm] at the bottom of the cover, but in white [=whatever] at the top).
And contributing to the crowded feeling of the world is the cover’s dark, two-dimensionality. At least, the cover’s background appeared to me to be flat at first, a blue mixed with a amorphous region of black.
It took me several looks at the book to realize the amorphous region of black is a human hand. Once I realized this, the cover took on more depth, which relieved the claustrophobia a bit. But then it looks like in this world there’s always someone sticking his/her hand in your face. Which reintroduces the feeling of claustrophobia.
Did you see the hand at first? Maybe I just am no good at noticing things that are actually obvious. I’d be interested in knowing if anybody reads the cover differently. I don’t want to criticize someone else’s work without admitting there may be another way to see it that I am just not good enough to have seen.
Do you ever get lost inside that brain of yours Micah?
:)
Oh, I didn’t see the hand at first!
How was the book itself? While there are some great/true things out their in the world wide web, man, there is a lot of crap, too. It worries me a little when people quote things from the internet like it’s Scripture, you know? (Especially about hot-button topics.)
Anyhoo, I’ll get off my soapbox now. :)
I don’t know, sounds like a lot of scare-mongering to me. There’s a lot of nonsense on the internet, of course (in fact, an enormous amount). There’s also a lot of nonsense on television and in the newspapers and magazines and even scientific journals. Nothing excuses you from engaging your critical faculties and evaluating the evidence. I find this much, much easier on the internet than in any other medium since bad information is usually so obvious and fact-checking an internet source is just another internet source away.
“…another way to see it that I am just not good enough to have seen.”
Not good enough?
Humility is appreciated, but I don’t think it is necessary to discredit yourself.
I read some reviews of the book since I last posted and I have to withdraw my comment. While the title and cover art indicates scare-mongering, it seems like the content is actually pretty responsible, including an essay by someone who explains how to evaluate the trustworthiness of an internet source. This is far, far better than the simplistic “there’s lots of misinformation on the internet so you should never trust it ever” line that one normally hears.
I saw the hand the second time I looked (before I read the post). I noticed that it looks a little deformed: the palm seems awfully big for the length of the fingers, especially of the thumb.
And then I forgot about the hand and started getting twitchy about the off-kilter, in-italics out-of-italics in-italics out-of-italics text at the bottom. It makes my brain itch. Not in a good way.
D’OH!
Yikes. I totally used the wrong “their.” I should’ve said “there.”
*Looks sheepish.*
How embarrassing. For me and my family.
Your friends too. You forgot your friends.
*pretends he doesn’t know Amanda*
You have done well, young grasshopper. You have made me proud.
I will limit my comments to repeating something I am found of saying often “Much of creating good design is simply avoiding bad design.”
The rest of what I could say about that book cover could fill a small book of it’s own and since I don’t really want to bore your readers, I’ll keep it to myself. :)
*Throws a sheep at Scott.*
Sorry, Micah, for such violence on your blog. Please forgive me.
:D
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