Stop, Think, Go, Do

Graphic design focuses our eyes and mind on what

is already instinctively hardwired.

INFORM

“Knowledge is power,” Sir Francis Bacon wrote in 1597.

So, to inform an audience through designed messages

is to impart knowledge, which enables self-condfidence

and strength that leads to power. What better way to

influence behavior than to inform. Right? Therefore, this

book begins with a chapter devoted to designing frames

for the presentation of valuable (and not so valuable)

information. This is the broadest of the book’s categories,

since by definition the graphic designer’s single most

important job is to inform.

By processing information the receiver has the ability

to stop, go, think, do—we hope.

Often, however, information is just so much noise, empty

and unnecessary. Or it is propaganda, manipulated and

untrue, but made to be important. Or it is a hawker’s pitch,

the goal of which is to stimulate commercial, political,

or social obedience. Knowledge may be power, but

information is not a priori powerful. And yet whether true

or false, meat or fluff, smart or dumb, when information is

presented in a designed context with the intent of drawing

attention, it is given authority that it either deserves or not.

The designers represented in this section use various

means to present complex information simply or com-

plexly. Some are aesthetically striking, like the poster

series for Ugly Mug Coffee (page 25), which uses discordant

and variegated wood types in a particularly pleasing

typographic composition to present wordy pitches on

the efficacy of drinking java. Some are typographically

dynamic, like the series of event posters for Nouveau

Relax (page 32), which superimposes over photographs

of everyday situations—fish market, subway station,

streetscape—signs announcing art and culture activities.

Environmental super graphics are also a favored way of

informing. The Eureka Tower car park garage (page 38)

11

is a illusionary game, whereby key words—UP, DOWN,

IN, OUT —are rendered at mammoth sizes in primary

colors. But that’s not all; from certain angles they are

read perfectly, yet from others they are distorted to give

the illusion they are posted in air. Another form of envi-

ronmental graphic is not super but it is exceptional: for

POEZIN (page 21), a veritable poster is made out of

colored gaffing tape on a hurricane fence. This one-of-

a-kind “rendering” is photographed for the final piece,

but anyone seeing the original will doubtless be drawn

in by its unconventionality. The POEZIN campaign also

extends to painting information on human bodies and

clothes in such a way as to grab the eye and not let go.

Along the same lines, mixing body art and taping

messages to an environmental surface, the poster campaign

for “Something Raw” for Theateer Frascati in Holland

(page 17), is comprised of bodies and faces evocatively

plastered with the event information using adhesive

materials. The idea for presenting information on the

human body started with tatooing, evolved into the less

permanent sandwich board signs, and then in 1999

Stefan Sagmeister etched information for an AIGA

lecture into his body with a razor blade, the bloody scabs

became the lettering.

Information can be presented in a straightforward

manner, like the poster “Osam Sati Rada, DVA Sata

Pozorista” (page 31), though bold type and neutral graphic

elements. The posters for Take One movie rental service

(page 22), include a bold headline, like “You can have

sex in a theater, but can you cuddle?” against a bright

orange field. Or a more demonstrative typographic

treatment draws attention.

Informing is tricky insofar as it is important not to

overpower the information with conceptual cleverness

or typographic conceit. This is way the advertisements

for Nissan Shift (page 23) using custom street signs to

promote its “free” GPS and air-conditioning is so smart.

The signs, produced in the manner of European street

markers suggest the alternatives to a/c: Heat Road, Humid

Avenue, Sizzle Street, Sweaty Boulevard. In the most

sublime way, these keywords trigger discomfort in the

reader, forcing them to appreciate the value of free air-

conditioning. Sure, many other car companies offer the

same amenity, but this campaign gets under the skin.

Informing is the job of graphic design. Causing the

receiver to act or alter behavior based on that information

is the goal. But turning the information into truly useful

knowledge is icing on the cake.

stop, think, go, do

12