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A Tale of Christmas Design

Posted 25-Dec-2008 by Robby Slaughter (@robbyslaughter)

‘Twas the night before Christmas
And ‘neath the church steeple
Was the season’s decor
And the smartly dressed people.
 
Poinsettas were placed
On the altar with care
In hopes that the service
Would please all who were there.

And the choir sang sweetly,
And the trumpets did sound,
And the pastor preached grandly
On divine hallowed ground.

But the shimmering candles
And the glimmering platters
Showed those in the pews
That some thing was a’matter

For scattered among them
Was a tri-color flyer
A musical program
Whose style drew ire:

There were errors and slip-ups
Such as quotes left unclosed
And a beheaded header
All marring the prose

And six different fonts
Such as: Bremen, Bodini
Times New Roman Italic
And Baskerville (teeny!)

Plus a narrow front flap
(Which can make patterns fairer)
But this edge covered text
So it looked like an error.

And the structure and layout
Were rarely consistent
And capital letters
Seemed oddly persistent.

But there at the window
In a dapper red suit
With the beard of a wiseman
Wearing fresh-polished boots—

A Claus entered grandly!
Like a force or a vision
With a heart full of passion
And an eye for precision.

And there in his wake,
But not lesser nor minor,
Marched in a parade of
Eight famous designers.

More rapid than eagles
His experts, they came
He whistled, he shouted,
He called them by name:

“Now, Lowey! Now, Carson!
Now Bucher and Glaser!
On Tufte! On Steiner!
On P-Rand and Baker!”

“To the top of the page!
To the drawing board wall!
Now contemplate, contemplate
Contemplate all!”

And so, scratching chins,
With the voices of teachers
Each would gently suggest
Ways to improve the features.

Their comments exchanged
They went staight to their work
With cutting and pasting
Then turned with a jerk.

And giving a nod,
The nine left the scene
Heading for studios
With their hip urban sheen.

But I heard them exclaim
As they flew out of sight
“Great design is still hard,
So keep up the good fight!”

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