Graphic Design:

I am not qualified to teach you anything about graphic design.

But this is the internet, so I will anyway.

The basic goal behind graphic design is to deliver a message to an audience. (Read: make the viewer think what you want them to think, see what you want them to see, etc…) When you have a limited amount of time to deliver a message this can be difficult.

Take a look at this nametag:

Now, you do not know or care who Russell Barry is, and if you did know you still wouldn’t care. So as you walk past him at Knowledge Bowl, you’re just going to ignore him. My challenge as the graphic designer is to find a way to deliver the message that this is Russell Barry in the brief moment I have while you are walking past him. Or, if I can’t give you his name in that amount of time, I have to find a way to draw you in and force you to read his name. So take a look at this MACABRE nametag:

If you notice, your eye goes immediately to the large kanji symbol in the middle. In the instant it takes for you to walk past Russell, I have caught your eye with this character and likely sparked your curiosity.

Your eye now follows the slope down to the two small kanji characters (the characters are earth, wind, and fire; but I’m not actually sure which ones which). Now that I’ve got you, you go on to read the name: Russell Barry, and find out that he is the Founder. You then wonder what he is the founder of, so you go up to the top and read the word Macabre.

By this time Russell is probably wondering why your staring at his chest, so you’ll probably ask him to explain what MACABRE is. You probably won’t understand, but now you’ll definitely know who Russell Barry is; and Russell, who would otherwise be an unimportant and unnoticed individual, has probably succeeded in meeting a few girls as a result.

Thus we see how the art of Graphic Design can be used for mind control and to meet new people.