Design Through a Childs Eyes
My son is the child of two graphic designers. His friends parents are teachers, chiropractors and firefighters, so to him our profession is something pretty special. We are often the recipients of his ‘graphic design’ project from his school day—letters, shapes, logos, superhero drawings—it’s very clear to him (if not always to us) which is just a drawing, and what is graphic design.
Our daily discussions are usually about Superman, Starwars, and Ninja Turtles, but frequently we also discuss graphic design. From a very young age, my son could tell you all about logos and could identify my company’s logo on materials out in the community. But our most recent graphic design conversation was about symbols. It started with the ‘Don’t put the baby in the front seat’ symbol on the passenger side visor of our car. He asked what it ment, and I explained, followed quickly by saying, “a graphic designer made this symbol”. “Oh,” he said, “I wish they had used a photo of a real baby.” “That is the greatest part of this symbol,” I say, “The baby has been simplified into this shape, so they didn’t have to choose if the baby was a girl or a boy, had dark skin or light skin, blue eyes or brown eyes…they simplified it so you quickly know it’s a baby, without having to see the eyes, nose, hair, or any of the details, you just know it’s a baby”.
“I don’t get it.”
“Oh…well…they simplify it, they take out all the details, and make it an easily identifiable shape, so that people immediately know it’s a baby”
“I don’t get it.”
“Um, ok…well, you see on this napkin [picking up a Dunkin Donuts napkin], what is this right here [point to the coffee cup]?” “A coffee cup.” “Right, but how did you know it was a coffee cup?” “Because of the steam coming out of the top” “Right, but is coffee orange?” “No.” “Right, it’s brown, but you knew it was coffee, because of the shape of the image, but a designer simplified the cup and the coffee to make it quickly recognizable without the details of the cover and the coffee and all the steam. It’s simplified into a few lines, but you know what it is.”
“I don’t get it.”
Yeah…it’s a concept that I often can’t get my clients to understand. A simple, clear message, trimming out all the unneeded information, is powerful, is quick to understand, is a clear way to get your message across. To my clients I often use the example of Times Square, how one bright, beautiful lit up sign is an attention-getter, it’s amazing, but when you add 20, 50, 1,000 of those signs, it’s a mess, it’s overwhelming, and the messages all becomes a blur. The same holds true for a poster where all the text is large and bold, a business card where there’s no white space and no visual direction for the eye, and a web page where all the fonts are the same size, same color, same weight, same, same same! Symbols, as well, work best when they are simplified, including only the most necessary information. How did I know it was a baby? Its small size compared to the seat, the indication of the infant seat behind it, the arrows indicating the crushing that could happen, worse-case scenario. It happens through visual cues that we pick up over the course of our lives, our visual encyclopedia we keep in our heads—the same one that lets us know that green = go; the circle with the red line through it = don’t or no; and a triangle pointing to the left means ‘play’. Much of the time, we don’t even realize we’re adding to our encyclopedia, but we’re doing it almost every moment of every day.
So maybe that is why my son “doesn’t get it” when I try to explain that symbols are simplified images that assist us in our every day lives, his encyclopedia is just at the beginning stages. Or maybe it’s because he’s been conditioned to think more is more, and the ‘less is more’ concept is tough to get when your five. Or maybe my, “you know, it’s a baby, I just know it’s a baby” explanation was less than informative. I’m going to spend some more time working on this concept, figuring out ways to explain it to him, show him examples, and take an image and simplify it with him to create a symbol, really walk him through the process. But the question remains: if I figure out how to explain this to my five-year-old, will this same explanation work on my clients?
1 comment May 8, 2008
Back by popular demand, the Create Comics summer workshop! Considered a ‘boot camp’ for cartoonists, ideal for ages 16+, the 5-day workshop packs in the essentials for producing your own comics. This year faculty includes Steve Bissette (Taboo, Swamp Thing), Robyn Chapman (Hey, 4-Eyes!), Alec Longstreth (Phase 7), Aaron Renier (Spiral-Bound) and Jason Lutes (Berlin).
