A lot of graphic designers are writers about their subject as well: Michael Bierut springs to mind. It’s said that an aptitude for design is transferable to writing. It’s true there are similarities between writing and designing. Both disciplines are concerned with the ordering of information: a well written essay is also a designed piece of writing. That is to say, a ‘designed piece of writing’ is not concerned with the typography of the writing, but with the arrangement of words themselves into cogent, clear sentences; sentences which fit into paragraphs; paragraphs which fit in a longer piece of writing.

A successful piece of design is one that can benefit neither from something added or something taken away. A good piece of writing is the same: words are carefully chosen and balanced, unnecessary and platitudinous words are removed. There is no decor in good writing, much the same there is no decoration or aesthetic frills in good design.

A good piece of writing is one that leads the eye and interest of the reader into the subject and topic, beginning with an introduction, leading on to the central remarks of the piece, and finishing with a conclusion. A skillful piece of design should do the same thing, especially if it is concerned with arranging information. The eye should be led to the right places; more complicated, perhaps, because there is no linearity in the ‘design-reading’ process. We don’t ‘read’ graphic design, or a website, the same way we read a document. Areas can be ‘flagged’ to prioritize attention, size can be used to indicate a hierarchy, but how a user might behave on a website may largely be down to individual decision.