Dear All,
Joao Ferreira has a very good point, and it’s an issue on which I believe that Gunnar is quite right. There is a problem with journal publication formats and conference paper format standards in many fields. In this respect, the journals and conferences in nearly all design fields also suffer from a common and widespread problem.
The relevant issue is not whether the printed pages are “appealing,” “attractive,” or “beautiful.” These qualities are worth considering, but they are not central.
The relevant issue is whether the printed pages are legible, easy to read, and able to transmit the informational content to the reader.
In this respect, many design journals and design conferences fail. As the prison Captain (Strother Martin) said in Cool Hand Luke, “What we got here is failure to communicate."
As an editor launching a new journal, I can say that we are well aware of this issue, and we hope to address it well. I know that the new editor of Visible Language is similarly working on a journal that is easy to read — physically. The format of the printed page is much like the engine on a rocket — it must carry the throw weight if the payload is to reach its target. This is something engineers and other designers do not always understand.
An engineer once sent me a book to read. The book was set in 10 point type on 10 point leading, set in a single column full across the width of an A4 page. When I said that I could not read it physically, there were many excuses as to why the book was really quite all right as though this were my problem and not a case of physically illegible book design. I simply did not read the book.
Another case is the case of a famous and generally excellent industrial designer from the design methods days who produced an interesting book of philosophical reflections. He sent me a copy. This was a small format book set in what might have been 6 point type. I wrote back to explain that I could not read it, so he sent me a flat sheet Fresnel lens. I could not bring myself to explain that I was not prepared to sit for a page-by-page reading with the lens, and that without proper indexing or guideposts, I had no way to know what was worth reading. A more widely known example is the important book Design Science by Vladimir Hubka and Ernst Eder. The Springer edition is set so small that those who own the book can barely read it. Fil Salustri has done the world a real favour by arranging an easıly readable web edition atURL:
http://deseng.ryerson.ca/DesignScience/
For that matter, many designers themselves present impossibly unreadable slide shows at conferences. This cannot be blamed on conference organisers. Designers themselves are at fault. (Visible Language recently published an excellent article by Per Mollerup titled “Slide Presentations, Seriously.” With permission of the editor, I posted a copy of this in the “Teaching Documents” section of my Academia page at URL:
https://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman
This is not simply an academic problem, though. Many design magazines, architecture magazines, and fashion magazines use tiny type because the designers feel that the type looks good, without attending to legibility or communication quality.
When it comes to book design, Marshall Lee’s classic text remains the gold standard. Amazon carries the third edition at URL:
http://www.amazon.com/Bookmaking-Editing-Design-Production-Third/dp/0393732967
There are obviously some excellent books on design for other formats, but those who learn to design books in this way can apply the lessons to nearly any form of graphic artefact. Dick Higgins gave me a copy of Lee in 1970 when I worked as general manager of Dick’s Something Else Press. The lessons I learned working with Dick stay with me to this day. As an avant-garde publisher with a message to share, Dick understood perfectly well how clear communication through typography, design, and the mechanics of physical book production gave his publications to deliver a payload that still resonates four decades after the press closed its doors.
Lubomir Popov is right to note that different research communities have different publishing practices. I’d say that all research communities should consider clear communication and the ways in which typography and page design serve those needs. This remains true without regard to the content of the communication.
Medical journals, physics journals, and graphic design journals must all communicate content to readers. So must engineering journals, mathematics journals, and journals in fashion, photography, or film. What we cannot read physically due to poor typography or clumsy design gives us no basis for our own research, learning, and development. What we cannot read, we cannot use.
My thanks to Joao for raising this important issue.
Warm wishes,
Ken Friedman
Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Elsevier in Cooperation with Tongji University Press | Launching in 2015
Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne University of Technology ||| Adjunct Professor | School of Creative Arts | James Cook University | Townsville, Australia ||| Visiting Professor | UTS Business School | University of Technology Sydney University | Sydney, Australia
Email [log in to unmask] | Academia http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman | D&I http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn
Telephone: International +46 480 51514 — In Sweden (0) 480 51514 — iPhone: International +46 727 003 218 — In Sweden (0) 727 003 218
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