SOTU and the Paradox of Craft in the Digital Age

This week, the president of the United States invited visitors to his State of the Uniom address. That’s not my typo, that’s his. How can this happen?Carelessness? Laziness? Inexperience? Something else?

What does it take to make sure an official communication from the president of the United States is spelled correctly? Very little, so it’s revealing that such a high-profile invitation can have such an easy, yet high-profile, mistake. Sure, some would argue, particularly those who are the president’s supporters, that it doesn’t matter, that the message is clear and it’s just a silly typo.

But it does matter. Words matter. Spelling matters. Details matter. Accidents will always happen, mistakes will always be made, but that doesn’t mean we should accept them as inevitable. Most likely, judging by the quality of the ticket I’ve seen, the ticket was set up in Microsoft Word and may have been printed in-house by someone who has no particular skills in typography, design, proofreading, or any number of other useful skills that could have prevented this error. And therein lies the problem. Aside from the misspelling, the last line of text, the time, is touching the border, it is also set in all caps (P.M.) when the rest of that block is upper- and lowercase. There is an awkward mix of fonts from that scroll text that says House of Representatives to the small caps (and not true small caps at that) for the Admit Bearer block, the Gothic 115th Congress block and the upper- and lowercase text elsewhere. In fact, if we want to go deeper, the 115 is too widely spaced, the “th” sits too high, and non-lining numbers would have made a better choice for the date and time compared to the lowercase context.

But these things are overlooked. There was a time that to produce a ticket such as this would mean a professional typographer would either compose a block of cold metal or hand-engrave the artwork into metal. Both processes are time consuming and require skills to execute well. Engravers and typographers were never rich. Those professions were not ones that people did who did not love their craft. But because their jobs required a considerable amount of labor (wielding trays of lead type, cranking a proofing press, cleaning up afterwards), they made sure what they did was right the first time.

But today, computers allow us to create things like this invitation without having to learn the craft of doing so. The computer makes straight lines and can set text in different fonts, at different sizes, using different weights, but it lacks the judgement, the skill, of guaranteeing the finished piece is done well. And so that duty falls to the unskilled operator, often working for little money, who is not a typographer, editor, designer, printer, or proofreader. Paradoxically, the computer allows for the creation of things of great precision, but of little craft.

It is sad that the president of the United States is leading the charge into a world where craft is lost, where “meh” suffices. We all deserve better.

The original ticket:

Our redesign:

 

 

Building a Community, One Mile at a Time

In 2012, the leader of a local fledgling running group, the Leatherman Harriers, would send a weekly email to a group of around 25 runners to coordinate a weekly run, usually on Sundays. When the leader got injured, Studio 23 creative director, a member of the group, volunteered to take over the mailings temporarily.

“Once I started the mailings, I realized that I couldn’t always be counted on to be at my desk to send them when I wanted so I decided to set up a professional email list and allow runners to subscribe and unsubscribe as they wanted. Then, it became clear that instead of handing out maps before the run, it would be useful to allow runners to download their own maps of the course in case they wanted to run at different times. Thus, SundayRuns.org was born.

“The site forms the social hub of the Leatherman Harriers and includes over a hundred course maps, lists of upcoming regional races, postings of the weekly run with map download, helpful tips for running, geolocated course downloads, social media accounts updated weekly, Strava Club board, calendar subscriptions, and the email signup.

“One of the highlights of the week is the group photo taken at the start of the runs which is then posted on Facebook, Instagram, and on the site itself to give potential runners a visual of this excellent group. Since taking over duties, the emails now go out to over 600 runners weekly, we’ve developed several new local trail races, and the group has developed into an accomplished cadre of ultra runners who have tackled some of the most challenging trail races in the world. I look forward to sharing many more miles with them ahead.”

A great example of using online tools to build an offline community. See the site at SundayRuns.org

 

 

Dinosaurs Alive!

Dinosaurs Alive Website Design by Lee Willett / Studio 23
Dinosalive_homeFor the IMAX film Dinosaurs Alive, the American Museum of Natural History and Giant Screen Films chose Studio 23 to create a site as a gateway to a global adventure of science and discovery. Visitors can learn about he film, view the trailer and even send dinosaur e-cards to friends. The site uses images from the film and computer-generated dinosaurs to give the user an experience that brings dinosaurs back to life.

Golden Opportunity for AMNH

American Museum of Natural History Exhibition Le Perigord restaurant website design by Lee Willett / Studio 23
GOLD_homeIn the glittering American Museum of Natural History exhibition entitled Gold, ancient coins, sunken treasure, trophies, jewelry, and other cultural artifacts, along with extraordinary natural specimens, tell the story of this enduring symbol of wealth and success. The museum chose Studio 23 to design the promotional website and create interactive content elements to inform and entertain its target audience. Working within the branding guidelines of the museum, we leveraged elements from the exhibition and developed an online widget that invited visitors to find “if they’re worth their weight in gold.”