PLAIN, PURE AND SIMPLE

There’s hope in them words.

In the past 12 months or so, the likes of former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, research from fund manager Invesco, and various and sundry media have pointedly – and poignantly – argued for the use of plain language.  In everything.

No one individual, no one corporation is immune.  Bloomberg BusinessWeek dove into the intricacies of Goldman Sachs’ rules for communication.  [Who could resist this one:  “Each individual’s correspondence must be sampled no less often than annually”?]

Financial advisers were another target.  Corporate mission statements received another volley of “please simplify.”  And Levitt took his once-and-future colleagues to task for using Wall Street-ese.

All these op-eds make us happy.  Most communicators and designers are, by instinct and by training, advocates of the strategically plain.  But where’s the reinforcement for great writing behaviors?  What’s the overall plan for change?

Once upon a time, the reward for best prose was bigger and better attention, which translated into book sales, media readership, even Internet visits.  Today, those incentives don’t work; bigger and better attention goes to Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber.

Maybe change for plain starts at the grassroots, with some simple tools put into the hands of influencers and agitators.  It could be a five-point checklist, inserted into brochures and annual reports, pasted on explanatory packaging.  Readers and consumers fill out that card, returning it to the originator.  Additional pennies per purchase or per stock share are given to those companies excelling in streamlined (and comprehensible) words.

Or for quick returns, how about a national award, with Hollywood-ish publicity, celebrity presenters, and re-tweets for the best non-advertising copy in different categories?  The statue would, of course, be called Mark, after author Twain who said he would never “write ‘metropolis’ for seven cents when I can write ‘city’ and get paid the same.”  A road show, then, would forever cure winners of using more than three-syllable words. 

Psst:  Brangelina, you busy?

THE ART OF THE ONE-PAGER

You would think that a society consumed with 140 characters and all types of texting abbreviations would have mastered succinct-ness.

Not so much.

Ever sat through PowerPoint presentations  that drone on and on and on?  Or suffered through meetings that, somehow, misplaced their agenda?   And waded through mounds of non-legal documents to try to uncover the one or two salient points needed to move the project ahead?

It is difficult, we admit, to filter all the information from our inboxes, our business conversations, our RSSs, our regular subscriptions, our podcasts and vodcasts (not to mention the drive-time radio) into one compelling message or outcome for our latest work project. 

Numbers are proof of our lives’ (and our thinking) complexity.   For instance:  Every two days more information is created than between the dawn of civilization and 2003.  

When that happens to us, we resort to diagrams and drawing.  And dumping our minds and insights on one (and only one) 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper.  Now, we’re not talking “drawing” in terms of Michelangelo, but rather in the use of shapes and figures similar to what we did in grade school.  In fact, anyone – even without a design bone in their pinky – can produce a one-pager.

Where to start:  Ask yourself about the end of your project, what you want to accomplish.  The results, in short.  Begin with a picture (in stick figures, if you’d like) of the “end.”  What will the company do differently?  Your team?  Other audiences?  What will the impact(s) be on all these varying groups and sectors and industries?

Those musings, we suspect, can be captured in a few bullets or phrases. 

Then, track back to the beginning and plot your progress. Like Monopoly, you’ll need to begin at “go,” what consultants call “current state.”   Select circles or arrows or any two-sided shape to show the two or three previous phases that need to occur before arriving at desired results.  Insert, again, a few bullet points for each shape.  Expect to explain only enough to have readers/viewers/listeners understand your journey.  And applaud.

SYMBOLOGY 101

Confession:  Visual design professionals are not the only ones who love symbols and icons.

 To them (and to us), it’s not just filler or decoration.  Nor is it a way of illustrating words to emphasize points.

 Instead, symbols and their iconographic relatives (also known as infographics) connect meaning and the mind.  They break up the pattern of words, singularly, so we notice and absorb quickly – in many cases, much more speedily than reading a page.  They also act as translators for those unfamiliar with a particular jargon or culture.

 What started us thinking about the power of symbols were the subtle and blatant changes in Bloomberg Businessweek and stalwart Time magazine articles.  To depict the changes in the new healthcare law, for instance, Time’s designers segmented the impacts by group – single, newly married, family, senior et al. – and then bulleted those changes in words, with illustrations.  BBW grabbed us with the headline “how not to embarrass yourself in Germany,” featuring boxes, with almost universal symbols (taxi meter, water, utensils), and one or two sentences about what to/not to do in different situations, like taking cabs, drinking, and eating.  Now every print pub’s doing it, from heavy-on-the-pictures Martha Stewart Living to heavy-on-the-text New York magazine.

 What magazines have learned is that Internet-raised readers prefer bits and bytes and symbols as shorthand for communications.  Other industries and professions embrace icons:  CPG marketers use them consistently.  So do architects and planners, among many others.  [And don’t forget graffiti artists.]

 Icons make it easier for us to flag specific topics – and, visually, identify the level of attention needed.  In other words, guiding us about work behaviors and activities.  Instead of all-caps directions in the subject line, images are inserted within copy.  Inside manuals, we turn to pages we need immediately through colorizing and picturing. 

 Some of our favorite worktime actions lend themselves to visuals: 

•       For your information
•       Deadline nearing
•       Mark your calendar
•       Be IT secure
•       @home

 Why not add yours?  Or other icons you’ve adopted?  Words, we know, will never be replaced.  It is time, though, to deliver a greater, more immediate impact when words combine with symbols.  

‘TIS A GIFT

Lately, our eyes are glazing over more often.

 It’s not because of aggravated presbyopia.  Nor hours of Web surfing.  Or even our occasional trips in visual stimulation (read:  shopping of all sorts).

 Instead, we’re attributing that “duh” look to the ever-increasing complexity of, well, stuff.  Charlie Sheen’s tour name, My Violent Torpedo of Truth, mesmerizes without saying much.  Twitter handles and comments are all-too-often incomprehensible.  Parsing the latest U.S. diplomat’s Middle Eastern speech to uncover possible solutions is just too taxing.

 That’s true for design too.   Photos and illustrations appear sans captions, and often are only somewhat relevant to the subject.  New brands take into account all colors of the rainbow, yet miss the product or company’s critical essence.  Web sites – ah, don’t get us started.

 All we’re saying is give simplicity a chance.  There’s incredible under-acknowledged power in being brief and to the point.  There’s drama, too, in the understated look and feel, one that matches the brand, its attributes, and its personality.   Even in the ethereal, consensus-driven business of crafting vision and mission statements, straightforward is beginning to rule.

 One example, touted by trend-watcher Fortune magazine:  Oracle.  In an industry that’s polka-dotted with jargon and acronyms that change daily, this California company is (and we quote) “masterful at using basic messages to communicate the complicated nature of its products.”  What does Oracle say about itself?  “Hardware and software, engineered to work together.” 

Expect, soon, an avalanche of simplification gurus, folks who’ll, for a fee, help whittle down words and pictures.    If that process trues up with what you and your company stand for, great.  

 If not?   We admit, it isn’t easy to clean up long-used language and visuals.  Owners and originators can bristle, understandably so.  Sometimes it involves almost literal wrestling matches with the message holders.   And sometimes, it makes sense to stand aside, fold our arms, and mutter one Yiddish word.  Ferblungit.*  

 Welcome to our world.

*[It’s simple:  Get the meaning from its sound.]