Design for Readership

Choosing color for impact: When only black will do

by Ann Wylie, president, Wylie Communications Inc.

I'm a huge fan of The New Yorker covers: I collect them, frame them, hang them on walls. (Former Wylie Communications Office Manager Sandy Patzman has me beat: She once wallpapered a bathroom with them.) So I was eager to see what The New Yorker would put on its cover after the Sept. 11 tragedy.

Despite my regard for the magazine, I was amazed by the image. At first, the cover appeared to be simply black, the magazine's logo reversed in white. "That's ... minimal," I thought.

Then I caught a black point breaking the "W" in the logo. It turned out to be the World Trade Center's north tower antenna. When I looked closer, I could see the silhouettes of both towers in blacker black — a fifth black ink, I later learned, on a field of black made up of standard four-color printing inks. An overprinted clear varnish "helps create the ghost images that linger, insisting on their presence through the blackness," says artist Art Spiegelman.

This simple, dramatic painting, appearing as it did when our eyes had been besieged by a frenzy of scorching images, reminded me of something important:

Sometimes, when everybody else is shouting, speaking softly is the best way to get heard.

Need more techniques for creating a structure that makes your copy easier to read and write? Check out Ann's workshops and learning tools.

About the author

Ann Wylie runs a company called Wylie Communications Inc. Ann works with communicators who want to reach more readers and with organizations that want to get the word out. To learn more about her training, consulting or writing and editing services, call Ann at 816/997-8753 or e-mail her at ann@wyliecomm.com. Get a FREE subscription to Ann's e-mail newsletter at http://www.wyliecomm.com/newsletter_signup.shtml.

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