Accessible Info

In the last week I've been asked twice what exactly a graphic designer does. I'm sure there are graphics professionals who would define the role differently, but as far as I'm concerned, it's my job to make information visually accessible (as well as unique and attractive). The old Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes entry packages are an example of anti-design (my opinion). I suppose they served a purpose; miss putting one sticker in place and your entry is probably disqualified ("You may already be a sucker"). On the other hand, the early church had developed a whole iconography to make information accessible to even those who couldn't read (man with a bee hive? That's St. Ambrose. Saint with a palm branch? One that was martyred). Iconography is a little different now. Today if you see a symbol surrounded by a red circle with a diagonal bar through it, you know that you are not supposed to do something (don't smoke, don't enter here, no ghosts allowed). These are pictures that might save a thousand words, even if they don't necessarily paint as many.


I went to a design presentation some time back during which the speaker was disappointed in the lack of a contemporary iconography. Whatever Hieronymous Bosch might have been trying to say in his bizarre artwork is mostly visual gibberish now. And while this type of symbolism isn't quite as necessary now that more people are able to read, I think it is still possible to remind an audience an entire story with a recognizable picture. Our iconography has just changed from religious symbols to fantasy symbols: Indiana Jones with the bullwhip, the Jedi with their light sabres, Mary Poppins with an umbrella and really weird shoes. Or one of the bread and butter jobs of a designer now: branding. Red and white concentric circles for Target, a bloated check mark for Nike -- calling people to our new religion of commerce.


Those are my first thoughts on accessible information as a designer's job. I'm on the watch for examples of good communication and of buried communication. I'll see what I can post here.