Subtlety and communication

By Jeremy Star
An interesting consideration which emerged during this project was how much information was necessary to convey the message. This was relevant in one of my images showing a stack of books deliberately arranged.

The books in the image are arranged to create steps on one side and a ramp on the other. The books themselves represent knowledge and the arrangement of them shows that knowledge is accessible to disabled people. The steps and ramp lead to the same place, showing that there is more than one pathway to achieving academic success. I identified this as one of the main objectives of the University of Otago Disability Information and Services who the images were created for.
Click the thumbnail above to see the full size image.

The title of the book that makes up the ramp is deliberately chosen as it is written by Stephen Hawking who is a famous academic who uses a wheelchair. This is a subtle reference that I do not expect everyone who views the image to understand. I debated whether the photo of the books communicated the message strongly enough. I liked the subtly and succinctness of the photo on its own but decided to add the wheelchair symbol going up on the ramp for additional clarity. I also added the phrase, “making knowledge accessible” to emphasize the message of the image.

This is a common dilemma that designers are faced with. It is a delicate balance between being minimalist and effectively communicating.