Personal As A Design Trait: Why Sounding Human Is The Whole Strategy
What Does Personal Mean in Design?
A caption can make an ordinary object more interesting by explaining why somebody chose to look at it closely. A drawing reveals which details its maker keeps and which are simplified, whilst a group of photographs can give the same overlooked feature repeated attention. Personal describes the particular viewpoint or relationship that becomes apparent through these choices, where the work begins to show a recognisable way of seeing its subject.
That specificity doesn't require a wobbly logo, although the slightly uneven letter has become a familiar shorthand for friendliness. The same approachable treatment can appear on quite a lot of unrelated businesses without revealing much about any of them. What remains recognisable about the viewpoint when the handwriting disappears? Perfectly straight lettering can say something very particular, provided the decisions around it have a reason to belong to this subject.
Trait Relationships
Personal occupies the opposite end of AIF’s Personal–Formal axis. Formal foregrounds an established role, ceremony or institutional register, whilst Personal brings an individual perspective or a direct relationship into view. Polish can appear at either end; a formally structured publication might give its introduction a distinctly personal voice without needing the rest of its arrangement to become informal.
Paired trait: Formal
Warm colour and Tactile surfaces may suggest proximity, although a cold photograph can reveal an equally unmistakable way of looking. Precise digital lettering can make a very particular joke, and Systemic organisation can give these choices a dependable setting as the formats change. Consistency helps the viewpoint remain recognisable when it supports the expression instead of making every instance identical.
Formal Language: How to Recognise It
Selection reveals a point of view. A photograph of a pot’s underside can show which details matter to its maker, bringing something usually hidden into a prominent position. A finished object placed beside disordered linen may tell considerably less. The more particular choice gives the attention a reason, making the subject easier to understand in a way that the familiar styling leaves unexplored.
Images establish habits of observation. A consistent distance from a sitter can connect a portrait series; repeated attention to awkward gestures reveals another sort of interest. A particular simplification of foliage can do something similar in illustration. Hand drawing makes those decisions visible, although photography and precise vector work can establish equally recognisable habits in what receives attention and how it is shown.
Typography shapes the relationship. A small annotation can seem closely attached to the material it describes, with its size suggesting something worth noticing after the main image. An enormous greeting gives friendly words a much more commanding presence; the language may be amiable even when its scale makes it difficult to ignore. Readability gives a distinctive voice enough room to develop across the text, before the lettering itself becomes an obstacle to the exchange.
Colour and materials need particular reasons. Acidic yellow might describe a maker’s taste more accurately than the expected welcoming peach, just as glossy paper can suit intensely personal photography. Uncoated stock may preserve the pressure and texture of drawings more clearly. What makes the choice belong to this work, beyond the usual associations of a friendly stationery set? The answer can be quite small, as long as it is specific.
Structure gives expression somewhere useful to happen. A stable grid keeps dates and prices easy to find as illustrations and captions change, allowing the expressive parts to vary without making the practical information unpredictable. Navigation benefits from the same clarity. An error message needs to explain the problem before attempting intimacy, particularly when the person encountering it has already tried to pay several times.
Historical Examples
- Jane Avril, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1893. The lifted skirt and sharply angled movement give the dancer a particular presence, with a cropped instrument intruding across the poster’s edge. Posture and framing establish character through quite precise choices. The image can be highly arranged and still reveal a singular observation, without every part needing to appear improvised.
- The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter, 1902. The Warne edition developed a story first sent in an illustrated letter to Noel Moore in 1893. Its small format and closely observed animals preserve a particular scale of attention as private communication becomes a widely published book. The character survives through how the subject is presented, giving the original attentiveness a form that can be encountered well beyond the letter’s recipient.
- Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair, Frida Kahlo, 1940. A suit, cropped hair and scattered locks make self-presentation conspicuous within a sparse setting. The direct gaze gives those choices an uncompromising presence, allowing Personal expression to become difficult as well as intimate. Friendliness would explain very little about the particular viewpoint established here.
- Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy, David Hockney, 1970–1971. Separate figures, a cat and the arrangement of a domestic room establish a specific social atmosphere. The controlled painting develops proximity through selected relationships, making observation and placement more important than any appearance of roughness. Its individuality comes through what has been noticed and how those observations have been brought together.
Contemporary Examples
- The Principles of Uncertainty, Maira Kalman, 2009 paperback edition. Painted observations and handwritten commentary connect everyday encounters through a particular observer’s attention. Compiled from newspaper columns, the book finds coherence across varied subjects in the things selected for closer examination. The handwriting contributes to the appearance, whilst the reasons for noticing these particular objects and moments give that appearance its substance.
- The Happy Show, Stefan Sagmeister, 2012. An individual investigation of happiness appears alongside wider social information, with diary-derived maxims becoming large typographic and interactive forms. Personal material is given a public setting in which visitors can encounter and assess it. The perspective remains individual even after the presentation has grown well beyond the proportions of a private notebook.
- Inside Out, Au Panthéon!, JR and portrait participants, 2014. Thousands of portraits covered parts of the Paris monument, introducing individual faces into a conspicuously public setting. Repetition gives their differences a common framework, making the accumulation of distinct people the substance of the work. At this scale, Personal presence becomes architectural without relying on the intimacy of a small paper format.
- Dear Data, Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec, 2014–2015. Weekly postcards recorded aspects of the designers’ lives through hand-drawn notation and explanatory keys. The observations give the marks something particular to describe; the key then lets another person begin to understand them. The attractive surface develops through the content of the exchange, with enough detail to reward the recipient’s continued attention.
What It Signals
A specific choice can suggest attentiveness when it reveals that a situation has been closely observed. A recognisable viewpoint also gives an audience something to judge, including the possibility of disagreeing with it. Personal character becomes more substantial when the work takes a position beyond being pleasant to encounter.
Neither that attentiveness nor an individual style proves kindness or authenticity. Printed handwriting can circulate in millions of copies, and a large organisation can reproduce informal language very efficiently. The relationship suggested by the communication needs some support in the experience; the familiar signs of a person only go so far when nobody appears to be listening.
Where It Works
Independent practices can make their judgement visible where that judgement is part of what a client chooses. A portfolio caption explaining an unusual crop gives the decision a clear connection to the image, allowing the work to support the account of how it was made. That small explanation may reveal considerably more than another statement of passion.
Editorial projects can establish recognition through sustained observation. Descriptions rooted in actual products and surroundings give hospitality or local retail a particular place through a similar attention to detail. A larger institution might make room for a named curator or practitioner, allowing an identifiable perspective to appear inside its wider structure. The responsibility gives the voice somewhere specific to belong.
Where It Can Fail
Manufactured intimacy becomes noticeable when the communication assumes a relationship that the service has barely established. A pet name attached to an unhelpful error message asks for patience without explaining what has gone wrong, making the cheerfulness particularly difficult to receive. How close can the language reasonably become before the experience has done anything to support that familiarity?
Private references can obstruct understanding for a different reason. A detail may matter deeply to its maker and explain very little to a stranger, leaving a menu dependent on knowledge of the family archive before its contents become clear. Personal attention includes deciding which parts of that private knowledge need an explanation outside the original circle.
Related Aesthetics
Vernacular Craft connects making to specifically documented traditions, whilst Raw Craft gives evidence of production a more prominent role. Playful Eclecticism can express personality through selected objects and their relationships with pattern or colour. These are fuller aesthetic configurations; Personal describes the viewpoint or proximity that develops within them, with the most useful distinctions remaining apparent after handwriting has ceased to be the explanation.
- Vernacular Craft
- Raw Craft
- Playful Eclecticism
ANGELAINTHEFIELDS (AIF) is a design practice exploring why things look the way they do, following the cultural references behind a visual style as closely as the details that give it character. The Library brings together those references and observations, whilst the trend reports examine emerging directions. There are also design assets, including textures and illustrations, for when the research starts turning into a piece of work. For questions or enquiries about working together, get in touch.