Content & Form

My bookshelf consists generally of two types of books. One being on the subject of design and the other on Christianity. While the books on design tend to look great with every page being so visually well thought out and a pleasure to look at with even the portfolios and margins being considered, many of the books on Christianity look really boring and may even go as far to use the word hideous. Insensitive to eyes of the reader, the book cover is an eye sore, and even inside the pages, the text is typeset usually too big and the margins nearly bleeding to the end of the page. But what I absolutely love about these books and why I keep them on my shelf is it’s content. The content is SO rich and wonderful! I tend to lean heavily on how something looks, for it’s my job to interpret content and give it form for someone to engage in. But I truly believe that content is king! Ideally I would want the form to look great and the content to be great, but in the end content wins. I can look at a piece of design and it may look great! It may make me want to drool and engage in it immediately. But if it’s not saying anything or pointing to a greater idea, it’s just eye candy.

That same idea goes for people. For they always say not to judge a book by its cover. The exterior is merely a facade and not always a true representative of one’s character. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best when he said he had a dream that people would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. And if I’m honest with myself, I make judgements all day everyday based on how people look, without really getting to know somebody for who they really are. And that my friend, is absolutely foolish. For I may be passing up diamonds in the rough, and exchanging it for fool's gold.