Consultant | will@deconstructingproductdesign.com
November + December 2009
sentences, objects, or environments—engaging and memorable. It is what makes double entendres interesting, puns funny, and the FedEx logotype intriguing. Now, if the word “proposition” gives you pause because you slept through linguistics, or the term “density” makes you wince because of its association with physics, fear not: We need borrow only what we need from these fields to apply the principle and no more.
For present purposes, a proposition is an elementary statement about an object or environment that cannot be easily broken down into constituent propositions. Consider, for example, the propositions: “The FedEx logotype is purple,” “The FedEx logotype is gray,” and “The FedEx logotype is an abbreviation of ‘Federal Express.’” While a linguist or logician might quibble that these propositions could be broken down even further, they are sufficiently reduced for our purposes and do a good job of describing the FedEx logo. These are called “surface propositions,” because they describe the salient, perceptible elements of the logotype.
Now consider the arrow created by the negative space. It is not an element, per se, in that
interactions
The doorbell rings. I glance out the window and see a Federal Express delivery truck. I open the door, exchange pleasantries with the driver, sign for my package using a nifty industrial-strength PDA, and then watch her scurry down the stairs and back into the truck. As she races away to the next delivery, I take an extra moment to look at the FedEx logo on the side of the truck, as I always do, and smile. Some people smile when they see children playing in a park. Others when they see one of those rare red-and-purple-sky sunsets. I smile when I see good design.
I like the FedEx logotype in particular because it employs one of my favorite design principles: propositional density. Look at the logotype. Read it. See anything interesting? Even if you did not consciously process the arrow created by the negative space between the “E” and the “X,” there is a good chance you processed it subconsciously. The arrow, pointing left to right, brings to mind concepts like “movement,” “ forward thinking,” and “safety,” which, incidentally, align with the words I would use to characterize my delivery experience this morning. That the FedEx logotype reinforces attributes that the company wants to associate with its brand makes the design a good one. That it achieves this extra meaning
without any additional elements is what makes it a great design, a propositionally dense design. And, to paraphrase Robert Frost, that makes all the difference.
Propositional density is the amount of information conveyed by an object or environment per unit element. The principle borrows from Noam Chomsky’s seminal Syntactic Structures and builds on the style of application promoted by Brooks Landon in his approach to teaching writing. Landon emphasizes sentence development in effective writing and asserts that the best writing is generally made up of longer, not shorter, sentences. The key to effective writing, he argues, involves the density of propositions in the sentence as much as more traditional writing fodder such as syntax, rhythm, and balance. To Landon, the sentence is a visible piece of writing. The propositions advanced by a sentence are assumptions and ideas, not necessarily written out. He offers the following metaphors:
I like to think of the written sentence as the part of the iceberg you see above the water, while many of its underlying propositions remain out of sight, under water. Put another way, propositions are the atoms from which the molecule of the sentence is constructed.
High propositional density is the key factor in making designs—whether designs of
• MINT Inc’s Hug Salt and Pepper Shaker reflects a high propositional density.
References:
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