(Ray)
(Fogra 29_WF)Job:08-28858 Title:RP-Writing & Research for Graphic Designers
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(Ray)
(Fogra 29_WF)Job:08-28858 Title:RP-Writing & Research for Graphic Designers
#175 Dtp:225 Page:115
110-133_28858.indd 115 8/30/12 4:47 PM
Writing & research for graphic designers
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You do not have to care about other people. You can choose to care
about only yourself. You can make things for yourself and no one
else. You can work for yourself and refuse to work for a client.
Instead, you can keep things to yourself. You can make things
and hang them up around your room and call it a day. Call it a
life. You don’t have to care about anything, if you don’t care to.
I care. I care about other people. I care about making
things. I care about dreaming and thinking and writing and
making. I care about graphic design and design culture. I care
about what other designers are thinking, what they’re mak-
ing, how they’re making it, how they’re giving their designs
to other people, and why they’re working the way they’re
working. I care about how other people receive those designs,
those messages, and those products. I care about how we talk
to each other and how we relate to each other. I care about
how we define value and create value and esteem the value in
our work and in ourselves.
That’s why I write. That’s why I write about design. That’s
why I write about designers and other people and the culture.
You don’t have to care. You don’t have to write. You don’t
have to design. You don’t have to evaluate the work of others.
You don’t have to evaluate your own work. You don’t have to
esteem the value of design or the value of work or the value
of other people.
In fact, you don’t have to make any judgments at all. You
can regard everything and everyone as having the same value.
You don’t have to judge between two websites, two logos, two
products, or two posters. You don’t have to care who made them,
how they were made, why they were made, what they look like,
how they work, or who they’re for. If you don’t care, then you
can’t tell the difference. To you, they’re all the same. One logo
is as good as another. One magazine is as good as another. One
designer is as good as another. One company is as good as
another. One government is as good as another. Who cares?
If you don’t care, you don’t have to differentiate between
a poster promoting this presidential candidate and a poster
promoting that presidential candidate. They’re both posters,
they’re both candidates, and you’re not voting anyway (you
don’t care). If you don’t care, you don’t have to differenti-
ate between store packaging for aspirin and street packaging
for heroin. You don’t have to differentiate between a website
promoting sex with adults and a website promoting sex with
minors. You don’t have to differentiate between shareware
and spyware, email and spam, or homage and plagiarism. You
pretty much don’t have to pay attention to anything: not form
or aesthetics, not content or copyright, not paper or people.
Does a design hurt someone or help someone? Is it ugly
CASE STUDY:
To wriTe abouT design is
To care abouT oTher people
DaviD barringer
Freelance writer, editor, and publisher
(Ray)
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section 4
learning from experiences writers discuss their writing
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or beautiful? Is it well made or poorly made? Well, who
cares? You don’t have the desire to tell the difference. You
don’t criticize. You don’t evaluate. You don’t care.
Wow, this paper has great texture. That logo is well propor-
tioned. Aren’t these colors amazing? This website frustrates
the user. That photo demeans the model. These signs are easy
to read, even at a distance. That poster provokes a double-take.
This overwrought packaging insults the intelligence. The
ornaments on this book cover are beautifully mysterious.
Hey, wait a minute. What are you doing? Are you noticing
things? The minute you start to notice things is the minute
you start to care. It’s the minute you start to care about design.
It’s the minute you start to care about other people. It’s the
minute you start to think, to evaluate, and to criticize.
How important is the first paragraph, and what do you try to get into it?
The essay doesn’t have a strict form. Like the novel, the essay changes with
the times, the culture, the writer, the purpose. So there’s no set thing as
“the first paragraph.” The opener could begin in the title, as in “This
Essay Is about My First…” and then the first line finishes the thought
with “…textual encounter.” Or the champagne bottle of a single word
could smash the prow and launch the essay. Or a musical note, a quote,
an image, a doodle, a line of dialogue, a Q that begets an A, and so forth.
The opening sets the tone, form, voice, perspective, and more. I can write
a funny first-person essay about living with the affliction called “designer’s
eye.” I can write a sober third-person essay about three graphic designers
whose aesthetic nagging alienated their friends. The opening of the essay
establishes which of these two essays I chose to write. And chose is probably
too neutral a term for the dynamic that drives me to write. I have to be fired
up and excited to write. I may try some new kind of form, some new open-
ing (new to me), that casts a light into the tunnel.
If the first paragraph is important, what about the last;?
I don’t have a method for ending essays. Most of my method takes place in
the middle, not the beginning or the end. Beginnings often frame the ques-
tion, and endings answer it in some way, literally or figuratively. The middle
poses the greatest challenge, because in the middle the writer has to think.
The writer thinks through writing. The writer states a claim and backs
it up. Then the writer states a counterclaim and explores that. The writer
I notice things, and I care. You notice things, and, if you’re
honest with yourself, you care too. So write about that. I want to
notice what you notice. I want to care about what you care about.
I can’t be everywhere at once. I can’t live any life but my own. By
reading about the experiences of others, however, I can see more,
feel more, and think more than I ever could on my own. By read-
ing, I feel like I can live more than one life. You notice and write,
and I read and imagine, and we both feel our lives grow larger
and deeper.
David Barringer Talks about Respect for the Reader
questions every step in the argument. The writer has to worry about being
misunderstood, about relying on solid and relevant evidence, about evaluat-
ing fairly and fully, and about avoiding poor arguments, like name calling,
wishful thinking, lazy fact checking, and snarky whining. Writing is think-
ing, and thinking is hard, and you think through writing in the thick of the
essay: smack in the middle.
What do you try to accomplish in a rewrite?
I rewrite with humility about my powers and respect for the reader’s intelli-
gence. I am afraid of being misunderstood. I often write, “I don’t mean that.
I mean this.” I also have this anxiety that I overlooked a mistake somewhere:
an error of judgment, an irrelevant comparison, an assumption that some-
body did something when really someone else did it. If you are not humble,
then you are likely to believe that whatever you have written is good. If you
do not respect the reader, then you are likely to believe that whatever you
have written is good enough. I reread before I rewrite. I reread my essays to
see if I understand what I wrote. Respecting the reader means that I reread
my work and ask, “Would a first-time reader understand this?” I rewrite
until I’m less afraid of being misunderstood, less anxious about missing
a mistake, and a little more confident that the reader will appreciate what
I’ve tried to say and how I’ve tried to say it. Not only do I rewrite dozens
of times; I will often abandon an essay or throw it all away and start again.
I let time be my editor. I let essays sit there for months. I let books — entire
books — sit on my hard drive indefinitely. If I don’t believe my writing is
good, then I don’t believe anyone needs to read it.
(Ray)
(Fogra 29_WF)Job:08-28858 Title:RP-Writing & Research for Graphic Designers
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