Designers provide ways into—and out of—the flood of words by breaking up text into pieces and offering shortcuts and alternate routes through masses of information. (...) Although many books define the purpose of typography as enhancing the readability of the written word, one of design’s most humane functions is, in actuality, to help readers avoid reading.
Interpretation
Designers help organize information to make it easier to navigate and choose what to read.
Ellen Lupton's quote emphasizes the role of design in information communication, suggesting that designers not only enhance readability but also curate content, guiding readers through vast amounts of text. This functionality of design serves a humane purpose by enabling users to avoid unnecessary reading, ultimately streamlining their experience and allowing for more efficient information consumption.
In practice
In a workshop on graphic design, I shared a quote on how typography can guide readers through content.
Design is an art of situations. Designers respond to a need, a problem, a circumstance, that arises in the world. The best work is produced in relation to interesting situations - an open-minded client, a good cause, or great content.
If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape. The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page... When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful.
Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
Good design should be available to everyone - and I do mean everyone. What I spent on the wheelchair I'm in could buy a small Mercedes. It's not only unfair to me; it's unfair to someone who's indigent but has the same needs. My goal is to make all objects affordable.
I am passionate about what design can do - how far it can support the new ideas and the new ways of living of this 21st Century. Good design accelerates this exciting future where manufacturing is local, materials and processes are cradle to cradle, business models are both socially and financially driven.
Great design will not sell an inferior product, but it will enable a great product to achieve its maximum potential.
Things which are different in order simply to be different are seldom better, but that which is made to be better is almost always different.
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