His post is altogether earnest and well-intentioned, and I applaud him for it. The point he’s making is a good one that designers have been trying to get the world at large to understand — and with increasing seriousness — over the past few years: good design can have monumental impact on the effectiveness of information. Still, I can’t help but be a smartass about it.
So I was thinking: one thing that even Greg’s improved Presidential daily briefing might benefit from is more zing in the copywriting, as Larry Tate might say. I mean, Greg’s format is spot on in terms of visual prioritization, but had it been in use that August, I think President Bush would still have read it something like this:
Here’s a version where the copy is a little ‘bolder.’ Hopefully, something like this might have gotten Bush off the ranch, but really, you never know, do you? There’s no point in dwelling on past mistakes. Unless they were committed by that no good bastard Bill Clinton. Him we’ll fry.