Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design

has managed to avoid in his other work), but he argues that in this instance
it is the most effective means for getting the point across. “I could have
come up with something more intellectual or some offbeat imagery, but the
problem was that, for the people I was speaking to, I think it would have
been too coy or too design-y. This was also for the NAACP, and it was
going to go to lobbyists and lawyers and teachers, and without being trite
or belittling, I want to speak in really simple forms and get an idea across
in a gestalt manner, whether it’s through your heart or your intellect or
whatever.”
Victore has a litany of peeves, many of which revolve around living
in New York. Over the past few years the city has become inundated with
“official” signs (dos and don’ts) bolted on lampposts, addressing the basic
etiquette of living with millions of other people. Consistent with this trend,
he did one titled Use Mass Transit, a bold gothic headline jammed together
with childlike drawings of cars and trucks. Another poster,Just Say No!
shows the severed head of Mickey Mouse with his eyes Xed out comic-
style, which addresses Victore’s assertion that New York is “being touristed
to death. New Yorkers are becoming just like the great silverback gorillas
who will now come down and will eat out of your hand.” Victore believes
that the Disneyfication of New York (the widespread colonization of Times
Square and other city venues by Walt Disney Company hotels, theaters,
and retail malls) is one of the city’s root evils. In the vortex of New York’s
official celebration of Disney’s civic improvements, this poster is a reminder
that it is all a branding scheme.