Re: sustainable swag

Rob wrote:

> I suspect we're talking about
> different things. I think the
> ISO symbol standards are pretty
> essential to make sure symbols
> are roughly equivalent in
> different publications, locations,
> and countries, and their
> recommended method for designing
> and testing new symbols is pretty
> good - you can look at them as a
> way to get a reasonable standard
> of information design into
> organisations who might otherwise
> be all at sea faced with the
> problem of commissioning and
> approving design. Without the
> model provided by ISO we would
> otherwise see more homemade, or
> inappropriately creative, or
> for some other reason poor
> symbols than we do.

I suppose I should clarify that my complaint is not about standards 
per se, but about standards that are inaccessible, restricted-use, 
and/or costly.

I really do believe that standards should be freely available to all.

(Surely our tax dollars can support this regulatory -- and to my mind, 
proper -- role of government!)

I still think that we should bring back the colophon, but I consider 
this an either/or proposition only for those cases where standards are 
not "free" (and I use this here in both Internet senses: free speech + 
free beer ;-).

Otherwise, I think the colophon should be a both/and partner with the 
free standard.

If nothing else, a case study (colophon) is a great way to communicate 
the value of standards to a broader audience.

I'm thinking here of all the organizations that don't know such 
standards even exist, and that would never dream of inquiring after 
them if they did (small businesses, say, with ever-shrinking profit 
margins and a culture that doesn't spend money on books, period, let 
alone standards, which owners view as just more onerous government 
regulation).

The prevalence of colophons (on restaurant menus, say) could be one 
way of introducing standards to a much broader audience.

Deborah
_____

Deborah Taylor-Pearce
[email protected]

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