He Got Editors and Designers Playing on the Same Team

“Word people must think visually and picture people must think verbally.” Why? Because the key to winning readers is to persuade them that a message is worth reading, and that takes a coordinated presentation of text and graphics.

The man who taught the publishing world how to do that, Jan V. White, received this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE).

To make good design decisions, White said, editors need to reconcile certain inherent conflicts. In particular, they need to marry storytelling, the technique of communicating messages within the context of a publication or Web site, with the physical demands of the product.

In his master work, Editing by Design (3rd ed., 2003, NY: Allworth Press), White tells designers, art directors, and editors how to achieve a happy marriage of product-making and storytelling. It begins with a fundamental truth:

Few subscribers want your publication as an object, but all of them want and need the information in it. They want it fast and clear. They want to access it easily and hassle-free.

While highly logical, not all of White’s principles are obvious:

Heads and decks … “Pithy shortness is less valuable than a promise of benefit, which might need a few more words, but will bring in more readers.”

Pull quotes … They break up gray pages when no illustration is available, but their effectiveness “depends on their ‘meatiness.’ They are words to think about and not just to glance at, so they must carry rich, challenging thoughts.”

Diagrams … White offers a rich assortment of ideas for presenting facts using pie charts, bubble diagrams, tables, and word charts, tips for improving them, and techniques never to use unless you want a reputation as a cheat.

Color … Aesthetics alone are not enough. Choice and position of color “must also be revealing to the mind.” To White, color is “a rational technique to be applied for functional purposes,” such as emphasis or persuasion.

Parade … A useful way of conceptualizing a publication. “Start thinking of pages as a series of events in a sequence, passing by like a parade.”

Checking … Print out hard copy of each page in miniature. Look for consistency and sequencing. But also: “Read the headlines for spelling as well as sense because that’s where the most embarrassing typos always happen.”