Design Always Communicates
Design is not an optional extra. If something has been presented in a visual form, it has been designed. Thus, everyone who presents information in a chosen form has made design decisions (Whitbread, 2002, p.2).
Whitbread’s rather startling observation awakens us to the implication of our conviction about, vacillation on, or dismissal of the design, format, or presentation of a project in which we have participated. Anything we make available for anyone’s eyes but our own is designed, whether that design is intentional, haphazard, or naïve.
Well, so what? If we didn’t take time to polish that last Web page; if we used a “cool” cursive font on that latest memo; if we forgot to proofread a resume and cover letter - it doesn’t matter, right?
What if…
- …that clumsy Web page costs your company sales?
- …the CEO who sees that memo decides its writer “doesn’t fit the corporate image”?
- …typos in that resume and cover letter cost you an interview or job offer?
These are all credible consequences, yes? And because we can see the cause-and-effect relationship between ignoring our designs and unfortunate results, we understand, at some subliminal level, the deep connection between design and communication. Many authors consulted for this project, including Whitbread (2002), Bain (1970), Turnbull & Baird (1975), and Brinck, Gergle, & Wood (2002), stress the link between the two. All argue, in some form, that design is not an end in itself, but a means to communicating with an audience.
The thought that our unintended designs communicate unintended messages about our work and ourselves can be a chilling one.
Do we then hide our lights under a bushel, fearing both unwitting exposure and the intimidating process of creating a public face for our projects? Of course not. Perhaps the design process is not so horrible as we believe. If, as Whitbread (2002) claims above, poor design is as simple as not attending to the look of the finished product, then we can improve the visual presentation of our work by paying attention. The best place to begin is with the most ubiquitous element of a project - text.
