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Tripping the Light Fontastic by Lois C. Ambash
Lighthouse International has been working to
meet the needs of blind and vision-impaired people for almost a hundred years. Like most
"special needs" organizations whose work is supported by grants and private
contributions, the Lighthouse faces a perpetual challenge: how to convey the societal
importance of its "special" mission to funders and to the public at large. When you're competing for limited resources in
a vast universe of worthy causes, there's nothing like a graphic demonstration that the
work you do is good for business. With its "Size Matters" exhibit, the
Lighthouse has done exactly that. Its message to advertisers couldn't be clearer.
Close to a hundred million baby boomers -- the most affluent segment of America's
population – are already experiencing age-related changes in vision. If this highly
desirable cohort can't read your ads, says the Lighthouse exhibit catalog, “they'll
turn the page. It's as simple as that." To demonstrate the point, Lighthouse
International designed a legibility competition. Three
hundred print ads were culled from large-circulation magazines published last spring. The
ads, aimed at the boomer cohort, were chosen solely on the basis of readability (or the
lack thereof) and submitted to a panel dubbed "The Big Guns for Big Type," all
noted experts in design, advertising, or vision science. The judges rated each ad according to four
criteria: type size (12 point or larger); font (simple, not ornate); spacing and leading
(ample space between characters and between lines); and contrast (sufficient contrast
between type and background colors). Design aesthetics, per se, were not
considered. The exhibit that resulted from the confidential
balloting contrasts 30 ads deemed "readable" with 20 others deemed "not
readable." The "not readables" included ads for Depend, Viagra, and several
financial services companies. One Big Gun, Jerry Della Femina, is CEO of the
advertising firm of Della Femina, Rothschild, Jeary, and Partners. In conjunction with the
exhibit, Della Femina's firm produced four public service ads aimed at art directors, who
tend to be "young and have great eyesight."
The theme of the ads is, "Small Type Kills Great Advertising." My
favorite of the four, all on display as part of the exhibit, is an eyechart-style
rendering of this text: HEY! BIG TYPE WILL BE READ. SMALL TYPE TENDS TO LOSE AUDIENCES
OVER 45 YEARS OF AGE, WHEN VISION DETERIORATES." Nuff said. When I visited the exhibit in January at
Lighthouse International Headquarters, Director of Media Relations Wendy Maurice and
Creative Director Jaine M. Schmidt estimated that several hundred visitors had viewed it
so far. Plans were underway to take the exhibit
on the road, downtown to the Parsons School of Design. Despite budget cuts and the post-9/11 effect
that has become a challenge to many not-for-profit and charitable organizations, Schmidt
and her colleagues have been buoyed by the positive media attention "Size
Matters" has drawn. Considering the
short time frame and low budget allocated for the exhibit, I'd rate "Size
Matters" an eye-popping triumph. Postscript: After my conversation with Maurice
and Schmidt, as I was leisurely viewing the exhibit, a uniformed employee pushing a
delivery cart, a man of a certain age, stepped off the elevator. We smiled in mutual
greeting. The man's enthusiasm for the Lighthouse and for the exhibit was obvious. He
stopped to chat for a moment and to make sure that I grasped the importance of the
exhibit. Leading me to the eyechart poster, he grinned.
"See how important this is?" And he went back to work. © 2002 Lois C. Ambash, Metaforix Incorporated. All rights reserved. Also read: Lois's Six Laws of Internet Research
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Stories Copyright 2002 2Young2Retire.com, All Rights Reserved
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Lois C. Ambash
is President and Chief Infomaven of Metaforix Incorporated, whose mission is to help
individuals and organizations respond to the challenges of the Information Age. A guiding
principle of her work is that people and organizations can discover within themselves
solutions to the challenges they face, if they ask the right kinds of questions. Lois
holds a Ph.D. in American Culture and Writing from The Union Institute, along with
Master’s degrees in Public Policy and Library/Information Science and a Bachelor's
degree in English. Before she founded Metaforix, Lois spent over 20 years in public higher
education, where she created and managed a variety of educational programs geared
specifically for adult learners. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Internet
Healthcare Coalition and an advisory board member of MyDoc.com, "the first
fully-integrated, 24-hour online healthcare service," and speaks frequently at
professional conferences and meetings around the country. Metaforix Mail is Lois’s
free weekly e-letter on information- and Internet-related topics. To subscribe, e-mail: