B-because… they’re made… of wood?

I’ve just finished reading an excellent article on the Speak Up design forums entitled Pizza Flyers: The Height of Good Graphic Design?

In the article, the author debates how one of the worst looking things in terms of its layout, type and color usage, etc. can be one of the most effective design solutions today.

The author posed this question first to his students - first asking if the flyers were well designed (to which all said no), then asked:

But had any of them used one to order pizza? Almost all had, and several said they kept flyers and even had them taped on the fridge door. So are they badly designed? I asked again. It was like the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the peasants are trying to work out the tortured logic of what it means if a witch burns: “b-because… they’re made… of wood?” It was clear from a lot of their faces that something was dawning, somewhat uncomfortably, on them. In this case the logic suggested that if a pizza flyer does its job then, no matter how awful it looks it must, by definition, be “well designed”.

This is a conundrum that I face nearly every day I go to work. With the majority of our clientele being local auto dealers, we certainly churn out a number of designs for print, television, and the web that sometimes make me embarassed to tell anyone that I made them. However… do people buy from these awfully designed pieces? Nearly every automotive client we have has jumped from lackluster sales to the top seller in each of the metro areas that they service. That should say something, I guess.

The author of this artice must wholeheartedly agree:

I would take issue with the idea that it is the role of the visually literate to impose their values on those they see as the visually illiterate. And I would question anyone who thinks that effective design, no matter how it looks, is not in some way good design… the fact that graphic design is an essentially multi-lingual activity in which we should, must, be willing to use the same language as the people with whom we are communicating.

It’s an interesting thought. One that I’m not quite comfortable with yet, but hopefully one that will let me sleep better some nights once I embrace it.