Bad design'll ruin everything

I was driving home just now, rather late, I should say, and I once again passed the signs that've been popping up everywhere around Seattle lately. The "Vote [something] on [some number]!". As you can see, they're very effective. Really, the only reason they stick in my mind so much that I might write a whole post about them, is because the last digit in the referendum number (maybe initiative?) is a zero, except it has this black streak coming up through it, at a not-quite-balanced angle, and so maybe the zero is a nine? Oh man it looks crappy. Maybe it's supposed to be a magnifying glass? I don't know what the intent is, but it looks like a mistake. Maybe the sign was stapled wrong... by a big black staple... in the same place on every sign (and there are about five gillion)? If I could remember what the number on the sign was... or whether I was supposed to vote for or against it... or even what the cause behind the propaganda was, I might care one way or another. No, this election, I ain't so well informed. It's the distressing design of the thing that gets me. Guts me.

With a huge populace to reach, you want to be sure you're look is gonna connect with as many people as possible. You gotta stay safe, in the way of looking well organized, but remain on the edge, so that it gets one's attention. There effectively an infinite number of variables when you're dealing with... well, pretty much anything, really. But what I was thinking was when you're dealing with the human psyche, and the senses, and how sensory input gets interpreted by the brain. There's a lot of strange things that happen. Ya gotta be careful. Or you have to surprise people, while still pleasing them. That's what all creativity should strive for.

I drove further on home, and rolled my window down a bit, and realized the rain smelled like the watrerfront. Salt, and fish. And even the tar and the wood of the piers. That's about twenty miles for the smell to carry, and I was surprised, and deeply pleased.