Designing the universal language

Kelly Kolton

Photos by Kelly Kolton

After my return to America, I’ve found myself missing the sights, sounds, food and the advertisements. Yes, the advertisements.

If you never have looked at the staff box of the Bradley Scout before, I am Kelly Kolton, the Graphics Editor of the newspaper. I am responsible for designing, managing and preparing the ads each week.

Before you cringe and moan about how ads take away valuable space in the newspaper for real news and other content, realize that the paper is not brought to your dorm and Bradley Hall for free by magical leprechauns.

Advertisements are what I like to think of as a necessary evil. Without the ads, there really wouldn’t be funding for the staff, equipment, and printing costs.

The delivery is another story. The paper does not instantly appear at each building on campus, rather it is delivered at 6:45 a.m. by four Scout staff members. Before I worked at the Scout, I figured the paper appeared when Chris Kaergard, the editor of the Scout, said the magic words.

Those “magic words” are actually a week’s worth of work by a whole crew of students. The advertisements I make are what makes it possible for them to do all this.

One of the most interesting aspects of Klin, the student news magazine in Slovenia, is the lack of advertising within its pages. Only the back two pages have full color advertisements. Delo, the daily newspaper in Ljubljana, Slovenia, also has a lack of ads throughout its pages; however, the few ads it has are grouped together on the back two pages of the newspaper.

The Bradley Scout handles ads differently than Klin because of the difference in funding. Here at Bradley, we rely on advertising, while in Ljubljana, the students receive funding from the student activities group. This group also funds Radio Student, which allows for student radio to be heard throughout the country, as well as other programs at other universities.

Because the student activities group must fund programs throughout the country, the funds are less than ideal. Klin does not come out each week, like the Scout does. Instead it is printed approximately four times a year.

The weekly format has the advantage of covering timely events. Imagine reading about Roy the Cat months after it happened--it would be old news by then. The monthly format has its advantages, though, allowing for more in-depth pieces and feature stories. Not that any of the Americans could read any of Klin, however, because it is in Slovene!

Unlike the articles written in Slovene, the advertisements, photographs and graphics were able to be read by people of any language. Through visual communication, we were able to tell what product an ad was promoting or the events occurring in the news story. The visual clues also helped people who did not speak the language to find the exits, which were identified by green signs above doorways with a little stick man running frantically towards a rectangle.

Much like the icons for safety, advertising must be read internationally to be fully effective. Jake Kasper, my fellow Slovene traveler, was compelled to buy a brand of shampoo while in Slovenia due to the billboards, posters and flyers the company used to promote their product. The company even went as far as to set up a barge in the river with the shampoo bottles lined up, creating the same face that appears on the billboards and other promotional pieces.

Other types of environmental design are important in Slovenia as well. Everywhere we turned, we saw billboards or posters covering round pillars that were there for that express reason. Posters we saw advertised disco parties and public service announcements.

The graffiti on buildings and walls even had an impact on Ljubljana’s environmental design. I was surprised to see graffiti almost everywhere we looked. Many of the messages were about President George Bush, Saddam Hussein or the war in Iraq.

Whether it is graffiti or images on advertisements and printed materials, there is a universal visual language. This is the key to enhancing communication between cultures and nations. When we view well-designed images, it is only then that we are able to truly lose our barriers and speak one language.

Kelly Kolton is the Graphics Editor of the Bradley Scout. She is a graphics miracle worker. Direct questions, comments, or cool Photoshop work to kkolton@bradley.edu.