Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design

which is used by the U.S. Army). Overall, the look is designed to scare on
the one hand, yet offer a certain solace on the other. Drawings of U.S.
troops on enemy leaflets are fairly sympathetic rather than demonic.
But one ironically disturbing leaflet titled, “Everyone Has This Nightmare,”
shows a Lilliputian soldier drowning on a platter of (presumably
appetizing) hot food, which is the Aggressor’s reproach that U.S. soldiers in
the field are victims of C-Rations (which really do taste like dog food) and
would be better off in an Aggressor rest camp, safe from harm’s way.
While ordinary military maneuvers are rarely a matter of life
or death, they do test the mental and physical stamina of participating
soldiers. These leaflets, and others like them, were purposefully designed to
seduce the psychologically weakened troops during a dangerous juncture in
warfare—the moment at which a decision is made to continue fighting or
surrender. Even in a relatively safe war-game environment, there is a
strong temptation to cave in to one’s personal and collective hardships and
ultimately shirk one’s responsibility. As unconvincing as they may seem in
retrospect, these plainly designed leaflets had a calculable psychological
impact that military experts wanted to quantify through intense
simulations. Surprisingly, the analysts found that the small number of
those who actually used the safe conduct passes was larger than originally
expected, leading to the conclusion that under severe battle conditions, a
leaflet is just as formidable as a bullet or missile.