Design is not extra

     If I were to give a presentation to my peers, and more than several words were more than carelessly misspelled, if my use of access and assess, interchangeably, clearly illustrated that I did not understand their meaning, if I did not proceed in a logical manner that knit together concepts and understanding in a methodical narrative, if I showed up in jeans and a t-shirt while my peers attended in suits and ties, if that was the quality of my preparedness and the scope of my scholarship, you would think me not only deficient as a professional, but also posturing in the importance of my message, wouldn’t you?

     Yet, if the text of my slides is microscopic or buried within the colors of my graphics (and so, unreadable), if my graphics neither elucidate a concept or dignify an idea, if talking points lie un-highlighted within blocks of documentation, if the projection is blurry, the sound system ignored, and value of the occasion dissipated by trivializing these “inconsistencies,”, we chalk it to “well, I didn’t have time to do anything fancy;” as though a strongly conceived and prideful visual presentation was somehow separate from the successful understanding of its content.

      We need to respect the idea that just as a sentence can be objectively assessed for its grammatical strength, so too can the image of that sentence be objectively assessed for its visual strength (The aesthetic value of its literary merit and of its artistic form lie with subjective criticism, but the construction of the sentence, in both cases, follow precepts that can be taught and learned.).

     So be a prideful and respectful presenter. Learn and exhibit visual design skills to better communicate what it is you want to share.