Len's News, Notes, and Stuff

Typography Helps You Communicate Better

The world would be a really ugly place without good typography. It already is in many offices, because most people have never heard of typography and never given a second thought about it. The world is awash in Times New Roman and Arial. As I type this content that you’re reading, I’m looking at Times New Roman font in the “backroom” of this WordPress blog platform and the only thing I can think of is “I hate this font, it’s been so overdone it’s the ugliest shit around.”

Seriously.

I’m not a professional designer, but I have utmost respect for those who are trained and have a passion for good document design. Graphic designers are often seen as just illustrators, but they also have training in how to make a document look good, eye-catching, interesting, and yet readable. Part of this is knowing more about fonts. Just fonts. Nothing to do with how it’s laid out on the page, but just what freakin’ font you’re using on your documents.

Back in June, I had a few new crew members come on board at work, and at one point I mentioned about paying attention to the typography. “What’s that?”

I have a feeling the majority of people in the majority of offices around the world would give you a quizzical look and ask, “Typography?  What’s that?”

It’s a shame, really, and one that I think is born out of the way universities train the vast majority of students. That is to say, every single student who isn’t in an arts or design program. Academic papers are supposed to be the most visually boring pieces of shit you’ve ever seen. The intent is so that the person marking your paper concentrates only on the content. Therefore, they specify something like “Times New Roman, 12pt font, 1.5 spacing, 1″ margins all around,” and every paper coming from the class should look the same if you didn’t actually read the content.

That’s all fine and dandy for academia, which is a world all unto itself. But that’s stupid, short-sighted, and negligent when it comes to preparing students for anything other than an academic future. To be fair, I can’t totally blame the instructors – after all, they themselves chose to spend much of their lives in academia. However, for any institution that has any pretensions of preparing their students for the real, non-academic world, they need to change that and give their students just one course in effective document design. That would include a good chunk of content on typography.

Why?

Because in the real world outside of academia, effective communication isn’t just about the content. It’s also about the delivery and the presentation. Stephen Hawking is an incredibly smart man, and he has done good work in physics – perhaps changing the way millions of people understand the physical universe – but I don’t think he’d get very far as a professional speaker. It has nothing to do with the content, but everything to do with the packaging and delivery of the content.

Most of us pride ourselves on our intellectual objectivity, but the brain is not intrinsically objective. There are ways to present material that grab your attention better. There are ways to make it easier for you to keep reading content. There are ways to bring your attention to key points. There are ways to subconsciously affect how you feel about the material you’re reading.

That’s what document design and good typography are all about: grabbing the reader’s attention, and conveying a message over and above the explicit content of the words. It’s about marketing (in its truest, and positive sense) and meta-meaning. It’s about the things that make one document and one writer stand out and be remembered. It’s about making sure that the ideas you are trying to communicate actually make it through the mental friction and filters on the reader’s end to be received, registered, and remembered.

Take a look at the way magazine articles are designed. Take a look at how books are designed. Beyond the layout, which is of course very important, look at the fonts they use.

Fonts affect legibility. Fonts have character. Fonts communicate by being the way they are, irrespective of the words you use the fonts to create.

Intelligent, deliberate use of fonts and physical structure of your text content – in other words, typography – will enhance your communication effectiveness. Take the time to learn about sans serif versus serif, about kerning, line spacing and hierarchy. They all affect how your document will be received – which, in combination with the quality of your content, is what determines whether you communicate effectively or not.

If you hadn’t heard of typography before, now you have. If you already knew about typography, good for you. But if all you know about it is that the word “typography” exists, go and educate yourself a little about it. It will pay dividends in your life.

That is, unless you’re an academic by profession. In that case, you might be ostracized by your peers for actually trying to be different in order to communicate more effectively. Go back in line and shuffle along like a good peon.

In case you’re wondering, yes, I do wish this blog template I’m using had better typographic design.

I See Homeless People. Do You?

It’s Christmas-time, a time for joy, happiness, love and fellowship. It’s a time that many associate with seeing smiles of joy and hearts filled with gratitude. Is the greatest joy and gratitude to be found in the smiles and hearts of little children as they open their gifts? Maybe. But I know for certain that if you take a few moments of your time to see, acknowledge, and connect with a homeless person, you will see true gratitude – one unfettered by greed, however innocent.

I don’t stop to talk to every homeless person I come across. I’ll even admit that I don’t feel compassion for every homeless person that I come across. But sometimes I do stop and connect with someone who needs help and, more than that, needs to be recognized as a person of worth.

Just tonight, as I walked to Union Station (a subway station in Toronto), I saw a man sitting at the side of the hallway, sniffling as though he’d been crying. He looked up, we made eye contact, and acknowledged one another. He didn’t ask me for money. I didn’t pass by with a “Sorry, man” or worse, just ignore him. I stopped, kneeled and spoke with him for 5 minutes.

5 minutes of your time can make a real difference in another human being’s life. It is the gift of recognition, of respect, and at its most basic level, of love.

The man told me about his history with candor, as we are all wont to do sometimes when troubled and talking to strangers whom we may never see again.

He told me that he has been homeless for 12 years. He has overcome a drug addiction, but admitted that he was still alcoholic. He told me about being shoo’d away from everywhere by security guards, and about the dangers of homeless shelters – where rape is an ever-present danger, where your shoes and socks can be stolen, and even your underwear right off you in the night. He told me he had been molested by his father from age 6 til 16, and he admitted, yes sometimes he liked it and went back for more.

I was speaking to a person. I was speaking to a real human being with a past and a history. I was speaking to a man with a heart, with emotion, with fears, and with longing. He spoke of his depression, and yet I sensed in him dignity and strength, hard-won wisdom and understanding.

But I was heartened to hear that I was not the only person that evening to see him, acknowledge him, and connect with him. Another man had just spoken with him and was going to see if he could get him some food and help him. My conversation with the homeless man came to a close when the other man returned.

He was the same man I had passed in the hallway just a few moments ago, who had held a door open for me.

Every time I have taken a few moments of my time to acknowledge and connect with a homeless person, I have come from it with new knowledge and new perspective. Each time I have given the gift of respect, I have seen real gratitude and real honesty in the person to whom I spoke.

It’s easy to ignore the homeless. It’s easy to never even see them in the first place. But if you open your eyes, you will see them. If you open your heart, you will discover someone with worth. You will discover a real human being. Try it sometime. And if you do it during Christmas season, you’ll see real gratitude and be enlarged by the experience, beyond what giving a material gift alone could ever accomplish.

I see homeless people. You can, too.

When will Government & its Agencies Start Using Today’s Communication Media?

Government ministries and agencies are not known for their responsiveness and communication efficiency.  Hidebound bureaucracies, particularly those run by politicians at the top, are loathe to say the wrong thing.  “Better to say nothing than to say the wrong thing!” is the de facto policy.

That will probably never change as long as we the voting public continue to vociferously punish elected officials and their staff even when the mistakes they make are honest, well-intentioned ones that any of us might make.

Still, there is room for improvement even within that constraint.  No matter how long it has taken you to craft your message, how do you get it out quickly?  That is of primary importance when it comes to emergency management.

Maybe that’s why it has been the police, fire, and other emergency-related services that have been first to use Twitter to communicate with the general public.  Now, in Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is getting with it.

PHAC has its own Twitter feed in order to get the word out as fast as possible.  But what about those people who don’t use Twitter?  How else can they use the Internet to broadcast their information?  They’ve now got a widget developed for people to put on their websites – it will display the Agency’s updates and announcements automatically, just like the Twitter feed on the right side of my own website here.  That’s a big step.

PHAC also has a mobile version of their website to enable fast, easy browsing via mobile phones, smartphones, and Blackberries.  That’s a big step, too.  Even a lot of private enterprises haven’t yet wisened up and created mobile versions of their websites.

To be honest, FoodlandOntario from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) also has a Twitter feed going.  It’s not just the emergency-related services that are getting the message and getting with the times.  But nobody’s life is at stake when it comes to what fresh produce to buy.  PHAC’s mandate involves the public’s health and safety.  That makes PHAC’s use of today’s communication tools much more important.

PHAC gets it.  Police and fire services get it.  Heck, even FoodlandOntario gets it.  When will the other government agencies, ministries, and services get it?

The best way to make sure you get the information you want, the way you want it?  Write to your MP or MPP (or Congressman or Senator).  If you convince them that it’s something important to do, they’ll make sure it gets done.

Now, it won’t change how quickly the information is created, but at least if you and I can get our governments to communicate what they do create as effectively as possible, that’ll be a big step forward.

French is Not the Only Endangered Language in Canada

Distinct society! Distinct society! Oh, won’t those whiny Quebecois ever shut up?

That is honestly what I had been thinking for years. Yet, like an experience out of the movie District 9, I find myself now eminently able to relate to their plight. I looked around and recently realized that my own culture and language are in jeopardy.

Many North Americans may not realize that there is no singular Chinese culture or spoken Chinese language.  But there may soon be.

I speak Cantonese. I grew up in a Cantonese home and for me, until recently, “Chinese” = Cantonese. Here, in the heretofore self-selected North American Chinese environment, that used to be true. But it never was in China itself, and now as Chinese nationals emigrate around the world, the Cantonese language is being threatened, and the culture that I know as Chinese is being rapidly moved aside.

For this post, I will concentrate on the language. I will leave the matter of culture for another time, because it is not Cantonese culture per se that is assailed, but Hong Kong Cantonese culture. That is a thornier, more contentious, and riskier topic – I am not yet ready to write in public about that.

With regards to language, Mandarin is the only official spoken language in China, and Simplified Chinese is the way billions of Chinese in China since Mao’s rule have been taught how to write.

Cantonese as a spoken language is but a sideshow in China, much as Quebecois French has, for all practical purposes, been relegated to the sidelines in Canada.  But surely there are enclaves where the language remains strong, right? Not really. I traveled back to Canton (now properly called Guandong) Province in China – home of the Cantonese language – and yet Mandarin prevailed there.  The Cantonese in Canton are being outnumbered by emigrants from other provinces.

Here in North America, in Toronto with a vibrant Chinese community and a strong Cantonese population, I hear Cantonese with friends and family but when I go to Chinese supermarkets I hear Mandarin on the PA system.

I even read an article not too long ago that there are Cantonese in China making real efforts to keep the language from dying in its native land. It is an uphill battle, and not one with a sure outcome.

It was not until I realized that the supermarkets – possibly the most linguistically democratic of places, since everyone has to buy food to eat – had become Mandarin-based that I realized my own language is in jeopardy.

With regards to the written language, Mao’s Communist Party developed and standardized Simplified Chinese. Chinese people outside of Communist China continue to use Traditional Chinese. But as immigrants from China itself continue to come over to North America – something that in and of itself is neither good nor bad – while the pool of Chinese immigrants from elsewhere has dried up, even the written language is in peril.

“Traditional Chinese will be superceded by Simplified Chinese here in Canada in 5, maybe 10 years.”

I heard that just the other day, and I fear it will happen. Simplified Chinese is not a natural evolution of the language – it is a deliberately, artificially modified version of the written language. It is, to many Cantonese here in North America, an abomination and an unwelcome creation of the Communist Party. Yet, the way the numbers will play out, Simplified will likely become the standard the world over. Even Taiwan has begun to transition to Simplified, bowing under the pressure of it’s enormous neighbor.

The language that I have grown up with, that I have always known as Chinese, is endangered and threatened. That it will eventually become irrelevant on the main stage, even amongst North American Chinese, is no longer in question. The question is whether it will be wiped out.

At least I now understand much better where the Quebecois are coming from. But for the Cantonese, there won’t be any public cries of distinct society – the Chinese language in any form is not an official language here, and Cantonese doesn’t get special recognition even in its own homeland.

I am Canadian, and my language is in peril. But I’m Cantonese, not Quebecois. How interesting that the same stories are played out in only slightly different ways.  Even more interesting how my perspective on the Quebecois cries for recognition and appreciation changed almost overnight.

Avatar: Prime Example of the Power of Art

James Cameron’s new movie, Avatar, is a supremely-executed movie.  The special effects are, in a very real sense, no longer “special”.  They are spectacular, but they are so well rendered, and so seamlessly melded with live-action, that they become accepted by the audience as being the basic reality for the story.  Much of the current media coverage surrounds the digital world and digital effects used to create the film.  Yet, I would argue, that is not at all the reason why this film is notable or why this film has real power.

Art has a special place in this world, not simply for its aesthetic and entertainment value, but also for its ability to enable us to see new perspectives and for its ability to literally change the way we see the world.  Avatar is a movie that exemplifies this power.

No, the movie is not perfect.  The story could certainly be stronger.  What the movie has going for it, though, are the following strengths:

1. There are clear messages being promoted by the story
2. The story is told in an emotionally-moving fashion
3. The story takes place in a fictional, science-fiction universe
4. The movie has unbelievably strong draw for a massive audience of all ages

Let’s take this step by step.

First, no story, no art would have any real value without an underlying message.  Art always intentionally communicates something – a point of view, an argument, something.  In this case with Avatar, there are several messages:

• Willful and wanton destruction of the environment is wrong
• The displacement (by force or otherwise) of indigenous people for economic reasons is wrong
• Corporate greed blinds people to the ethics of what they are doing

Whether you believe these to be true or not is beside the point.  Cameron believes them to be true, because these are the messages in the film, and this is his film, his story.

Next, the story is told in an emotionally-moving fashion.  Cameron is a good story-teller. That, ultimately, is what makes him good, and why his movies draw in so many viewers – whether it was Alien, Aliens, True Lies, or Titanic, Cameron has always told his stories well.  By creating a good story and presenting it to us artfully, he shapes, pokes and prods our emotions – and emotions are the key to creating lasting memories and the key to changing how we think.

The story takes place in a fictional world.  Good science-fiction has always been social commentary.  Avatar is no exception.  By placing the events and people of the story in a fictional world, we the viewers of the story become less defensive.  Whatever the message is about, it isn’t ostensibly about us, about our world, about what we do.  But of course it really is about us, our world, and what we do.  The magic of make-believe is that we are more likely to consider the arguments without being reflexively defensive.

Cameron uses stunning digital effects to create his fictitious world and to tell his story.  The movie simply could not be made without the technology and the skill to use it wisely.  But the additional draw, over and above Cameron’s innate storytelling ability and his reputation, is the sheer coolness factor of it all.  I have seen grown men get excited and giddy from seeing the computer generated environment on television ads.  The computer-generated world pulls in a lot of people, young and old.

When you put all four strengths together, you end up with a movie that will have lasting effect.  It is art with power.  You won’t see it right away.  I predict that the greatest impact this film will have on our future is through its impact on the children who see this film.  Yes, many adults will be moved by the film.  It will have an impact on us.  But it is through the children, who will absorb the world, the story, and its messages beyond what we adults will, who are going to be most changed by the film.

Avatar has a message.  Avatar moves us.  Avatar is art at its best, with the power to change us.