Did you ever discover a treasure that you've had for well over twenty years?
This is about Popular Mechanics the magazine, its design, design and an article that brings them all together.
I've been subscribing to Popular Mechanics since the mid 80's. A couple of years ago I opened up the latest issue and noticed the magazine design. This was a couple years after becoming a design guy. I am a design guy because I have an insatiable amount of appreciation for the type of design that affects me. And what most affects me about PM is their format for presenting information. Main body text is artfully broken up by illustration, pictures and smaller inserts of text. Thin lines of distinction and direction orchestrate information flow between text and illustration. Here is an example:
Simply, PM's design facilitates understanding in a clear and concise method (for me). Those more knowledgeable on things like this than I, call it Information Design.
How to Become an Inventor is an article written by Jim Gorman. Jim breaks it down into five sections:
- Cultivate an idea
- Build a prototype
- File a patent
- Test the market
- Sell it or make it
The design of this article is totally lost in the online version. In the magazine, text, inserted text boxes, pictures and illustration join together to present a readable and understandable article. This is what pops for me - In the introductory section, Jim takes the sentence, "The drive to invent is more powerful than ever..." highlights it in yellow and draws a thin, arced line to a text insert box labeled Lesson A. He then ellaborates on why the drive to invent... This technique is similar to linking out from an online article. The additional information adds value while not breaking and bogging down the introductory section. Jim provides a total of three such lessons in his piece.
A few components of design that make my heart skip a beat are how it makes something look, how it makes things better and the process it takes. Although in How to Become an Inventor, Jim talks about taking an idea, patenting it and either making it or taking it to market, his method follows a design process. Start with an idea, build a prototype, test it, get feedback, test it some more and then do something with it.
Once you adopt a design awareness, you'll begin to notice and appreciate pieces and parts of your life that have been with you all along.
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