Nothing More Than Small Talk

"Conversation should touch everything, but should concentrate on nothing."

- Oscar Wilde

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Design.

It's that stop sign on the street corner. The poster on your wall at home and the ads on the sides of buses. It's the way the Brooklyn Bridge glows at night, and the rickety building that should've collapsed years ago. Design is pictures, design is words. Design is a language -- a conversation.

They say art is the universal language because anyone can view and enjoy it as long as their eyes still work, but art is not design. While art is meant to be appreciated (and although design embraces artistic aspects), design is meant to be understood. Regardless of form, all languages share the same function: to communicate. Design is no exception.

Every design has a purpose -- where art remains ambiguous, design speaks out.

Take websites, for example.

A well-designed website is navigable and aesthetically pleasing, providing visitors with an experience that fits the message. When you visit a site such as that of Spoon Graphics, the welcoming "Hello" in clear, sans-serif Helvetica is an eye-catcher. So what's this guy do? Easy: "I design stuff." Oh, okay, you think to yourself. Awesome.

Logically, the next few thoughts may then wander towards what this Chris Spooner designs, why he does it, who he is, or maybe even how and where he does his thing. This is where visual hierarchy comes into play.

The exchange between a visitor's thoughts and website presentation is much like contacting customer service over the phone. Using gestures and reading facial expressions is impossible -- a website relies on common sense and visual hierarchy to lead you relevant information.

For Spoon Graphics, moving previews and large, bold text in the center (a natural point of interest) draw immediate attention, and thus contain the "who" and "what." The high-contrast bar at the top takes secondary precedence, and includes other big points of interest via "about," "portfolio," and "contact" links. Additional information is then found in smaller text near the bottom for those truly interested.

But this conversation doesn't have to be a one-on-one experience. In addition to having a conversation with the audience, designs can converse with each other. They share ideas, borrow from one another, and revisit topics from the past every once in a while.

Only through communication can designs build on ideas, pull insight from a network and, through collaboration, become something amazing.

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Examples of sites with poor design (for comparison) can be found at http://politics.freesitenow.com/basilmarceauxforgovernor/page1.html and http://www.siphawaii.com. For an ironic example of how good artists don't necessarily make good designers, take a look at http://art.yale.edu.