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Don't be Content With Just Good Content
By Daniel Montgomery
Published on Tuesday, June 09, 2009
ARTICLES
How to reinforce publication value through engaging visual appeal
Required reading at many free market think tanks are books like The Law, Economics in One Lesson and Atlas Shrugged - books that inspire and educate. Unfortunately, the best books on personal responsibility, free enterprise and limited government don't come with a users manual of how best to pass the ideas along.
The temptation, of course, is to think that the fundamental principles we believe in will speak for themselves. We speak the truth, and it will not return void. Right? Wrong. The presentation of our ideas matters. The look and feel of our publications and websites add value to our message.
These are not new concepts. Virginia Postrel, in her good book (add this to your institute's required reading) The Substance of Style attempts to make the same case. "From our earliest moments, the look and feel of our surroundings tell us who and where we are. But as we grow we imbibe a different lesson: that appearances are not just potentially deceiving but frivolous and unimportant." And so we set out to examine aesthetics with the hopes of discovering (or rediscovering) the right balance between substance and surface.
Let's take a look at three design elements: color, typeface and illustration/photography. These elements will help you add value to your rock star research whether it is in digital or print format.
COLOR
The goal is to help people see better and more clearly. The use of color can have a dramatic impact on the ideas you are trying to convey. Warm colors and cool colors mean things to the reader, the viewer. Black and white may conjure up Ansel Adams or vintage. Sepia tones carry with them specific messages. You have the chance to capitalize on built-in preferences as well as create your own.
Take, for example, the above snapshots of the Obama and McCain websites. Early on in the presidential campaign, the look and feel of McCain's site was, obviously, dark. I'd even say it was depressing. The site's early display of the U.S. flag was displayed in greyscale, too.
These are not things without consequence, especially when compared to the vibrancy of your competitor's product. Fortunately, the McCain presidential campaign later tried to turn its design theme around (although the end product was looking eerily similar to Obama's).
Take a glance at the above yard sign graphics. Since 1960, there have only been two presidential races (1976 and 1980) where both major parties did not use a red, white and blue theme for their campaigns. Perhaps the use of the colors of the American flag are so ingrained into the American psyche that without them, something's missing. McCain lacked red in his motif, Obama didn't.
TYPEFACE
A typeface, often referred to as a font, can go a long way in helping your organization reinforce the value of its research.
Referring again to the yard signs, McCain/Palin's main font was Optima - a font that is widely used, has a storied tradition and is available on millions of desktop computers. You may have seen it on an Estee Lauder product. Obama's typeface, on the other hand, is not commonly found on computers. It doesn't come bundled with Word. It's custom fit to have a unique appeal to it.
What you are reading right now is a serif font called Warnock Pro (a serif font has little flares beginning and ending the stroke of each character). If you look on your computer, you may have 100 fonts available to you.
When looking for a new typeface, you'll want to make sure it's from a good family. The basic members of the family need to be "regular," "italic," "bold" and "bold italic." Other bonus members may include "semibold" or "light" or even "semibold italic." The font used to set up SPN News has more than 30 family members. What does your font say about you? The right typeface can (help) set you apart.
PHOTOGRAPHY/ILLUSTRATION
Years ago, I wanted a shot of the Roman Coliseum for an essay Larry Reed was writing. I called a stock photography company and told them what I needed - told them how the image would be used and that we were a non-profit. The gal on the other end of the line quoted me a price of $1,200! I stood there stunned and said nothing. She updated her price to $800 moments later and I still didn't know what to say. I finally mustered up some words and said, "I could buy a plane ticket to Rome and take the picture myself for that much." She was, apparently, used to those kinds of responses.
What I didn't know then was that the right visual is worth the money. I still don't know if I'd pay $1,200 for a stock shot, but I can see why some do. There is a difference between paying a guy $500 to photograph your day-long event or seminar and using your point-and-shoot digital camera to photograph John Stossel shaking your president's hand.
Of particular interest to policy shops may be "microstock" sites. They are websites that often have millions of available photos that start at the cost of $1.00. Full-sized, print-ready images can cost up to $20. We've come a long way in availability of professional stock photography. Of course, as with the font issue, since the images are so inexpensive, it basically means that anyone can purchase the same image as you can. You'll want to be careful using ultra-cheap images in high profile settings as you are defining your own style, making your own mark. Fotolia.com, Veer.com, 123RF.com are just a few options for microstock.
Again, your goal is to compete in the marketplace. Your competition is not just in the political realm - ESPN, television, magazines, Kindles, The Onion, plus a million others are vying for the public's attention.
Compare the photographs of your events with those that appear on the homepage of nytimes.com. As in the for-profit world, we can learn a lot from our competition. Static head shots pale in comparison to the same head being photographed from a dynamic angle.
HOW TO DO IT
I transformed the report shown on the left (above) into the report on the right by using design ideas from this article. The familiar Times font was the first to go. The title was emboldened, the size increased and was spread from margin to margin (I kept a bit of the opening text as a stinger). I used a $10 photo, purchased from a microstock company, to make a stronger instant connection with the reader. A few dollars and a bigger font later, the report is ready.
One of the marketing temptations today is that, with the rise of Facebook and Twitter, organizations will ignore the value of standing out from the crowd and will attempt to let Twitter be their only means of marketing. Simply having a Facebook page doesn't create brand awareness any more than handing your business card to someone. You need to give them a reason to care.
There's never been a magic marketing formula that guarantees success. But, matching quality content with quality style has a good track record for improving your organization's odds. Edward Tufte says, "clear and precise seeing becomes as one with clear and precise thinking." That's our goal here - to help people see more clearly.
Daniel Montgomery is graphic arts manager for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and a freelance designer. You can reach him at montgomery@mackinac.org.
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