Just make it pretty Wan. Nobody reads them.

Just make it pretty Wan. Nobody reads them.

Lately I have been hearing that particular phrase more frequently. It happened when I was designing a poster for a certain Asian pastry event. Taking the modernist approach – clean style, symbolic shapes and almost devoid of any cultural references – the poster turned out pretty clean and structured. The information on the posters, information I assumed was critical to the viewer of the poster, was treated to be at their most legible. Clear and undisturbed. Pure legible typography. Not the fanciest of treatments but clearly the smartest I believe. After all, text are meant to be read. They are utilitarian. Of course it was a dismay the client demanded that the text be treated a little fancifully. 'It looks too simple.' she said. 'Spent a little more time on it.'

'Legibility must be our utmost priority here.' I said

'Just make it pretty Wan. Nobody reads them.'

Of course at this point, I was thinking, if nobody reads them, why are we putting up the damn poster? Just to fulfill a requirement that every event needs one? People do read. People must read. People should read.

It seems legibility is no longer a requirement for typography. We are in an age where information and knowledge no longer matters. Fashion and style has become priority. Even when it comes to editorial content. Just flip through magazines. More pictures. Bigger headlines. Fancy treatments. All come with a cost - legibility and the discarding of writing. Reading has become passé. A friend of mine who worked in advertising once gave me a friendly advise that when it comes to educating people, try to use as little text as possible. In fact do it with no text at all. At that time, I refuse to believe that words has no place in life. But now, I am afraid he just might be right.

I am a reader myself. So I impose myself onto the world and believe that the world reads and enjoys reading as much as myself. In fact right now, I am believing that you people are enjoying the words and sentence structures that forms this very blog entry.

Today the nobody reads them rationale had reached its most ridiculous heights. I was designing a mid year financial report and the client told me that nobody really reads the report. 'Then why are you spending huge amounts of money to have me design this report?' I asked frankly and in jest. 'Because I hope that people will read this reports after you make them look pretty.' I smiled and quickly flipped through the report pages. I tried reading it. It was unreadable. It was boring, financial marketing talk mambo jambo. People do not read because there is nothing to read. And my job it seems is to mask the stupidity within.