ISSUE 013

SOMETHING LOVELY
​that I saw

Massimo Vignelli was an Italian designer who shaped American visual identity for five decades, creating the New York City subway map, the American Airlines logo, Bloomingdale's branding and so much more! He worked across furniture, packaging, and corporate identity with a strict belief in grid systems, and was the man who treated Helvetica (and a good typeface in general!) like his religion. For anyone who knows me, I love-me-a-grid-layout, so I feel this quote in my bones! I've linked a short article that shares some more info and some of his other memorable quotes to the image above 🔗

SOMETHING USEFUL
​about how the brain works

A neuroscientist called Uri Hasson ran a study at Princeton that measured what the human brain does when listening to another person speaking. When someone tells a good story, the listener's brain activity starts to mirror the storyteller's - he calls it neural coupling, I call it the power of a damn good story!

Facts on their own don't do this. With facts the brain does its thing, processing each point on its own. But wrap the same information into a story with a beginning, a problem, and a resolution, and something changes. The listener's brain starts predicting what might come next, and tries to fill the gaps. They're not just receiving the information anymore, they're brain is living and breathing the story with you.

This is what separates a design presentation that clients really respond to from one that might technically cover all the points but doesn't really resonate. A finished scheme with no narrative is a set of facts a client has to evaluate. The same scheme, walked through as a sequence and a story with a (kickass!) framework (the site as it was, the problem it created, the decision that solved it) engages the client's brain on a neurological level.

Have a think about it for next time you are presenting or talking through one of your designs - are you just handing over information, or building a story the two of you can share and 'live' together?

SOMETHING INTERESTING
​for this week

I thought I would share 13 facts this week to celebrate this being lucky issue 13! (And please appreciate how much I had to resist sending this yesterday on the 13th instead of Friday the 14th!!).

1. The word triskaidekaphobia ('an irrational fear of the number 13') wasn't coined until 1911, by an American psychiatrist named Isador Coriat.
2. Not to be confused with paraskevidekatriaphobia, which is the fear specifically of Friday the 13th.
3. An estimated 80 per cent of high-rise buildings in the US skip labelling the 13th floor. The lift goes straight from 12 to 14.
4. Chicago's Hotel Burnham had a 13th floor when it was built in 1895. A later owner went through the process (and the cash!) renumbering every floor above it to get rid of it.
5. In China, it's often the 4th floor that gets skipped instead, because the word for "four" sounds like the word for "death."
6. The fear of 13 traces partly to the Last Supper, where Jesus and his 12 disciples made 13 at the table, Judas counted as the 13th.
7. It also traces to Norse mythology. Twelve gods were dining at Valhalla when Loki crashed the party as guest number 13, and chaos followed.
8. Some airlines often skip row 13 on the plane, for the same reason hotels skip the floor.
9. Apollo 13 launched from Pad 39, at 13:13 local Florida time, on a mission that suffered its famous explosion on April 13.
10. In Italy, 13 is traditionally considered lucky. 17 is the number Italians avoid instead.
11. A baker's dozen is 13 for a practical reason. Medieval English bakers who came up short on weight faced fines, so they added a 13th loaf as insurance.
12. 13 is the sixth prime number and part of the famous Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13).
13. There are roughly 13 moon cycles (or full moons) in every calendar year.

If my CDS content or newsletter has taught you something you didn't know before - coffee's always appreciated.

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