As I frequently find myself doing with these readings, I get sidetracked and want to explore the people that are written about within these short essays. Particularly, Vladimir Nabakov: Father of Hypertext, made me take to google and look up Pale Fire and try to get a glimpse of what this book entailed, reminding me of Stitch Bitch, which was my favorite reading to date.
I also really enjoyed the essay How to Become Famous. I aspire to be a great graphic designer, but not a famous one and this essay made the overwhelming goal of knowing who’s who in the deign world and how to establish yourself seem a little bit more manageable. And like I said before, it inspired me to watch an Alfred Hitchcock film when it discussed how you should give a presentation. Since I am one of those people who sometimes struggles with public speaking and being comfortable presenting to a large group of people, I hope I remember his advice about finding a rhythm when speaking and keeping the audience in suspense.
Also, in Information Design and the Placebo Effect, he touched on a subject that is constantly in the back of my over-exaggerating mind, “how real is this or does it only exist to assuage my anxiety?” In this post-9/11 world, how do we gauge our “terrorism levels” I vividly remember the first time I saw this “high alert.” I was cooking dinner and my dad was watching Fox News and they slipped the announcement into the broadcast, “Today we have a high terrorist alert,” and they proceeded to go onto the next story without an explanation as to why. I remember talking with my dad and neither of us could answer why that was mentioned at all and who it was supposed to be helping. By using a red background and bold font is that supposed to prepare me for a more cautious day than normal?
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