There's a time and place for literary nitpicking, and this probably isn't it

[devi]

I'm off out to vote shortly. Just to make sure I haven't missed anything crucial, I had another look at the manifestos of the two parties I've been vacillating between.

Is it wrong to feel more affectionate towards one party because their manifesto is snappy, specific, well-written and has nice fonts and nice graphic design, while the other is full of densely packed, long, rambly sentences of vague upper-manglement-speak that made my head swim?

Never mind foreign affairs, education or the economy! Check out the use of sans-serif!


Edit (back now): And I didn't realise UKIP's logo was a pound sign. Ew, how tacky.

Comments

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

No, not wrong at all. Have you seen the scathing literary criticism of the manifetos in the current Private Eye? Most enlightening.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

No! I'd love to. I'll grab one on my way out to teach.

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

Oh, do. It's very, very devastating indeed. None of them come out of it particularly well...

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

But then if it was nice to anyone it wouldn't be the Private Eye we know and love, would it?

[vardebedian.livejournal.com]

"And I didn't realise UKIP's logo was a pound sign. Ew, how tacky."

Ayn Rand's objectivists use the dollar sign as a logo. Maybe the UKIP are admitting something less savoury than they imagine.

[accasha.livejournal.com]

no not bad at all.... I'm a sucker for things looking nice.... I like to beleive that the people involved somehow care more (or is that just my justification for being shallow :-))

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

Think of this situation:
You're applying for a credit card, and have narrowed it down to two companies. One has clear, easy to read literature, including Terms & Conditions in English you don't have to get a dictionary to read, and the other has literature with no clear fonts, no pictures, 7pt text with T&Cs at 5pts.

Which one appeals more?
Which do you trust more?
Who looks like they give a monkeys about your money and custom?

Should it be different when voting? I think not.

Oh, and I don't mean this to be a capitalist argument.

[rowan-leigh.livejournal.com]

They were nice about Beagle 2, before it had been launched and disappeared off the face of Mars. :)

[lostcarpark.livejournal.com]

Well, come on, if a barty can't be bothered with good graphic design, how can they be fit to govern the country?

[mooism.livejournal.com]

Exactly. If something is to be read by lots of people, a lot of effort should be put into making it easy to read and understand.

Although, I haven’t seen any of the manifestos.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

It's a brand-new conspiracy theory!

[j4.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's wrong (though I suspect it would be a bit misguided for that to be the deciding factor) -- I think the choice of style, register, design, etc. can be indicative of the attitude, priorities, effort, enthusiasm, etc. of the people choosing them. I think it can also tell you a lot about the audience they (think they) are aiming their literature at, which may be interesting.

I try not to over-analyse the election literature for this sort of thing but I can't help noticing it, and if a party thinks people don't notice that sort of thing then I think they're missing a trick. Several tricks, probably. Yes, there's the flip side of that argument ("if they didn't spend all their money on fancy leaflets etc. etc.") but I think presentation does matter, and it doesn't have to be ostentatious and expensive shiny paper -- just readability, being easy on the eye, even just basic spelling/grammar!

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

They don't have to send anything. If they're going to send something, it doesn't really cost much more to get it right.

Thought while I've yet to meet election candidates, I know that the (non-Irish-Labour [1]) people I know that are involved in politics [2] are always slightly uncomfortable when I've read the stuff that comes through the door.

[1] Labour like their stuff being read. So the Socialist Workers Party, AKA the Party for Protests.

[2] Fine Gael; about the same position in the spectrum as current UK Labour.

[j4.livejournal.com]

They don't have to send anything.

True, but I think they'd be fools not to. Sure, if and when I want to read what the main parties have to say for themselves, I'll go and look at their websites; but not everybody has that option, and most people aren't proactive (ugh!) enough to ring up and ask about stuff or go and find out. As a nation, we're lazy; only just over half of us bothered to vote last election! If a party doesn't take that general level of apathy into consideration it's a bit misguided IMHO.

I do also read the stuff that comes through the door, in a something-to-read-idly-over-dinner kind of way, and it was noticeable that this time we didn't get anything from the Green Party at all. Or, indeed, from any of the three independents standing in Cambridge, which is frankly just stupid -- at least the major parties can rely on some kind of vague awareness of their policies (especially the Greens, and it's not as if you need to ask what they stand for!) but when I see three random names on the ballot paper and it's the first time I've heard them, I'm certainly not going to vote for any of them.

[specialknives.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about voting, but I personally think it's unethical to give money to people who proliferate bad design and bad writing, if you can avoid it.

And financially endorsing the use of comic sans anywhere, anytime, is reprehensible.

[ksta.livejournal.com]

and who was the weird party id never heard of at the bottom? stear?

[ksta.livejournal.com]

s/come/comes

;p

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

The s on my keyboard is a bit dodgy when I type at speed, it seems...

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Vote for the party with the worse graphic design - they're showing a commendable talent for avoiding wasting money.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Not in my constituency... Though here all the candidates but one had names beginning with F. That looked weird.

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

Rubbish. Some of the worst graphic design I've ever seen occurs when some fool buys an expensive system they've no idea how to use and then presses all the buttons that make things 'shiny'. They then go on to laminate their 'masterpiece'.

[juggzy.livejournal.com]

Two things - it takes huge organization to get those leaflets distributed. I've helped with labour mailouts over in Wales, and it has taken a weekend using 20+ volunteers just to get the envelopes stuffed for one mailout to the whole constituency. Independents often just don't have that organization to hand.

Secondly, there are some very good party workers that just don't have the eye for style and presentation or spelling(which I agree can be done cheaply) of other people. Not everyone has the same educational chances, or took advantage of them when they were there. Yes, the parties should probably overview the work, etc.

But I think judging by presentation and style is a mistake, and I don't think, frankly, you can even claim that it is representative.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

We seem to be operating under opposite assumptions concerning whether or not the parties do the graphic design for their own leaflets. I thought not.