142 | InformationDesignWorkbook

Info Design
in my Life
by Luis Merced

Good information design is like an uneventful airline flight. There’s no turbulence to remind you that you’re thousands
of feet in the air. You don’t pause to think about the mechanics of air travel or think too hard about how such a heavy
hunk of metal can be airbourne. You just board, slurp your soft drink, munch on honey-roasted peanuts, and confidently
arrive at your destination. When the job has been done correctly by skilled practitioners, information design can make
even the most complex information quagmire look simple. Consider the following examples. These designs do not have
to make an abrupt crash landing on the Hudson River.

On the side of the Zimmerli Museum, there is a big three-panel display

advertising major exhibitions. Here, the panels are largely pictorial,
each consisting of different colors, respectively reds black and white,
and earth tones. Although each panel is distinctive in color, the overall
display has a cohesive feeling. Generally, the typefaces used are sans-
serif. Within the three panels, the headline, or the title of the show,
is the largest of the three levels of text. The subheading, or a one-
sentence description of the show, follows thereafter. Finally, all the
dates of the shows are anchored at the bottom. This supra-textual
cohesion unifies each panel as one display (Kostelnick 28-29).

Recently, Tropicana underwent a complete package redesign, aiming for a simpler, minimalist
look to give the company a modern flair, especially with a sans-serif typeface. The new design
consists of a closely cropped image of a glass of orange juice set against a white background.
The specific type of juice overlays the image in distinguishable white text while the other
text is green. While all the text is aligned left, the large logotype “Tropicana” is aligned
right, rotated 90° counterclockwise. This contrast in direction and size gives the logotype a
feeling of hierarchy and emphasis; meanwhile, the left-aligned text supports the principle of
balance, alignment, and unity. (Lipton 17)
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At the airport, you cannot escape the onslaught of product and service advertising, even as you board the plane itself.
Here is the HSBC logo, mainly white with some splashes of red against a black background. This sharp contrast in color
makes the logo stand out and bring immediate attention (C.R.A.P. Site Design). Furthermore, this contrast is also used
typographically. “HSBC” is of a serif typeface, giving the bank a classic, traditional persona. However, “the world’s
local bank,” which is of a smaller, sans-serif typeface, evokes a universal, modern feeling. The use of two contrasting
typefaces gives a powerful sense of what the bank stands for (Know Your Type).

Domino’s Pizza usually leaves door hanger flyers with its special
promotions. In this particular one, the Domino’s Pizza logo is centered
on the top, with five different levels of information, two of which are
images. The overall color scheme of the text consists of red, white,
and blue, reflecting the colors of the logo and giving a unified look
but contrasts each piece of information (C.R.A.P. Site Design). This
use of contrast easily makes your eye go directly from top to bottom,
completely utilizing the vertical orientation of the paper used for the
door hanger flyer while leaving an appropriate white border around
the graphic elements for the eye to escape. (Kostelnick 13).

Because of ongoing construction, the traffic pattern in New Brunswick is

constantly changing. Thus, there are several eye-catching “DETOUR” signs
around the city. These signs are a bright, almost neon orange with a black
border and large, sans-serif uppercase text. The bright orange, which is
color adjacent to the color red in the spectrum, is perfect for evoking the
driver’s immediate attention, especially from a far distance, because “the
long-wavelength red focuses behind the retina, rounding the lens and making
the red look closer and bigger” (Lipton 31). The large black uppercase text
against the neon orange screams a message of appropriate significance (15).