The perfect couple.

DESIGN & WRITING WILL FOREVER BE INSEPARABLE

Somewhere between cyberspace and the latest PC-based design software smolders a flashpoint for a revolution in visual arts that has already radically changed the way we communicate. It promises to affect organizational communication even more profoundly in the years ahead.

Glimpses of the future pop up daily in the increasing number of places where we see what's waiting on web sites replicated in snail mail, on television and in the signage of 21st-century commerce. Tools, audiences--even ideas--are infinitely more accessible and will only become more so, creating a Dickensian "best and worst of times" for communicators.

The professional graphic design firms can provide wizardry that turns the two-edged conundrum into broader, better opportunities. But professional communicators should be there to help harness the technology, giving it a strategic role.

An experienced Atlanta-based graphic artist sees a "crossroads of technology and creativity" in the effect of electronic communication and the Internet on design. A Santa Monica, Calif., design firm sees the expanded ability for communicators to "attract and seduce" targeted audiences through good design, but always built on a foundation of clear, crisp writing that communicates, informs and motivates. Another designer specializing in print work, some of which gets transferred to electronic communication, sees more "intermingling" between the visual and verbal mediums.

"Convergence," a buzzword spawned by electronic communication and commerce tools, was the subject of a one-day seminar by the American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA) in New York City in March called "Verge." The seminar explored how "technology and multi-disciplinary teams have opened up new avenues of thinking about the implications of design and the role of the designer across all categories."

Changes in technology for graphic designers are like going to a 10- or 15-year class reunion, according to Michael Soha, a founder and principal of New York City--based CS Design Works. "You recognize some people and others look completely different. In the same way, our profession in some ways has remained the same, but in other places it has changed dramatically--and I think that is mostly in how we are fabricating things, physically putting the words and images on something.

"We find each of our clients has a different language, and we are calling the same thing by different names for different clients. Everybody has their own lingo, and this [Verge] seminar is attempting to agree on some standard words that cut across the industries most involved in the design process.

"Twenty years ago, if you told people you were a graphic designer, no one knew what it meant. I think design today is definitely more recognized in our society. The collaboration we have with writers is more apparent to the public and the industry. As more companies establish online presence, they are going to be turning to us."

In this visual age, the industrialized world is still hungry for content, but it needs to be strategically attractive because the competition for people's attention is fierce. Communicators are seeking beauty with a purpose that is more than just ephemeral, and sturdier than a mere facade. The greater number of electronic tools given the designers and communicators today creates a better chance for them to add value.

David Laufer is founder and principal at Atlanta, Ga.--based Laufer Art Inc., a firm specializing in professional service clients as opposed to dot-com firms selling products. His firm provides marketing, identity programs and branding for architects, interior designers, lawyers, IT professionals and asset managers, or as Laufer describes them, "anyone selling brain time on a fee-for-services basis." In this world, speed and quality are more important than costs, and the results of the communication effort can be measured quickly--by a successful sale or a rejection.

Recently, Laufer Art was given only a week to develop a carefully designed and written presentation document for a small asset management firm making a major presentation against a dozen bigger competitors in Europe. With a mere seven days in which to work, Laufer was expected to develop 10 hand-produced copies of a bilingual presentation document to help the firm make its bid for a US $100 million refinancing deal for which it was strictly a long shot in the race for the business.

What Laufer's firm developed was a cross between a high-gloss, high-priced image piece and a detailed, no-nonsense business bid proposal. It had attractiveness without being too flashy and plenty of detail, strategically packaged. Total design and production cost: US $50,000 for 10 copies. Result: Laufer's client was chosen to handle the $100 million deal, making the cost of the presentation very inexpensive.

"We now have the format standardized and it is part of their brand image when they do these targeted, slick-looking marketing documents," says Laufer. He thinks graphic design has undergone a "sweeping transformation," providing an excitement and flexibility to the communication process that was not present before the Internet took hold. It offers designers global resources that were totally inaccessible a little more than a decade ago.

While design--for annual reports, marketing collateral, capability brochures and presentations--traditionally was thought of as the frosting and framing used to spruce up dull but important information, communicators and their bosses now understand that graphics is a powerful tool. Design firms often work independent of a client's PR and advertising people.

Kim Baer, a founder and creative director at KBDA, an award-winning Santa Monica, Calif., firm that has added numerous high-tech and dot-com clients, sees this appreciation for the strategic application of graphic design in overall communication efforts. A recent example was the firm's work for a business-to-consumer dot-com company that was transforming itself into business-to-business with a top-to-bottom metamorphosis, including a new name and logo and a 180-degree turn in how it wanted to be perceived in the marketplace.

"They are using design as a really big tool for that transformation," says Baer, a California native who cut her design teeth in Los Angeles and New York City before founding her own firm in 1982.

Baer is a strong believer in the Internet's revolution within her field, but she sides with many of her colleagues in main-raining that its biggest effects are in the review and production process more than in the conceptual and creative work. The speed and flexibility allow graphic arts to team with communicators to provide strategic, results-oriented products.

"People are understanding they need a suite of materials and they need to be smart about which ones should be print, which electronic, and which both," Baer says. "That is the biggest impact of all, looking at a suite of materials and trying to integrate them while spending limited dollars wisely."

The perception looking back from cyberspace is that the written word is less important nowadays. "No way," say the designers, arguing that it is more important than in pre-Internet times.

"For us, the quality of the writing is really critical," says Baer, whose firm includes a "project manager/wordsmith" position now filled by Michael Lejeune, a UCLA graduate and experienced communicator in advertising and the entertainment industry. "Frankly, more and more of the clients are having us get involved in the writing because they are so overwhelmed internally, and they are almost too close to the material. We help them articulate how an outsider is going to take in the material."

Jeanine Colini, founder and principal of JCDA, Los Angeles, a design firm specializing in print work, says her design thrives on the written word, and would do so with or without the Internet and increased electronic communication.

"I always think the written word is important, and I think the graphics are more important than ever in order to enhance the communication so people will get to the written words," Colini says. "I'm a big believer in brevity, particularly in certain types of marketing communication. Less often is more, and well coordinated graphics with the audience and objectives in mind requires good team work with good writing."

CS Design Works in New York City turns to freelance writers often to turn conceptual design copy points into a coherent, effective story. The firm focuses on the client's goals and how communication can help achieve them. A recent internal campaign helped a company educate its employees on the products and capabilities of its expanding web site.

"We turn to writers all the time," says CS'S Koha. "Sometimes we know how it should look and what the basic message should be, but we don't know how to write it."

Much of today's sophisticated communication involves creating meaningful nuances, and the electronic gadgetry alone is often insufficient in making the point. The word-image combination that is a product of computer-driven communication provides communicators and designers the chance to drive home nuance when they adroitly manage the plethora of technology.

Atlanta designer Laufer sees examples of this convergence of design and word power in public communication from companies such as Enron, ADT, Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) and Apple Computer. An advertising series by Enron was "extremely facile in the way it combined typography, audio and the words moving on the screen," he says.

What can the communication and design communities expect in the years ahead? More of the same? A rebellion against information overload? Total communication dissonance among potential target audiences? Too much slick, fast communication for the sake of speed and trendiness?

Baer thinks good design's contribution is to help people cut through the clutter. Koha envisions a growing "dot-coin opportunity" for writers, designers and others to integrate further technological innovation into new communication packages. Colini wants more communicators to "open up their minds to things that might look a little strange typographically" at first blush, but which she thinks can be very acceptable, legible and effective if given a chance to work.

Laufer has yet another perspective on the real effect of e-technology and e-commerce on design's communication contribution. Looking inward, he finds it within the offices of most graphic design firms of any size. It is the ever-changing capital equipment (both hardware and software) that allows even the smallest firms to be players in the bigger communication projects globally.

"It has forced the design professionals to behave a lot more like the other professional practices (attorneys, accountants, etc.)," says Laufer, who thinks part of being a successful design firm involves being an astute manager of capital equipment. "The advent of the technology has forced them to learn capitalism and be more mindful of the capital equipment we use in a field where the stuff gets old in 16 months or so."

Richard Nemec is a Los Angeles writer and communication consultant.