Homework for 2/28/08
Analyzing the Design of an Everyday Text
This text is perfect for guiding us through our second essay. I personally was a little bit confused about what I was going to write about in the second essay, but reading this makes everything more clear. The article gives direct guidelines for what to do in order to analyze common "everyday" texts. It gives the purpose of doing so as well as how to do it. It even gives some sample essays.

Reading the Politics of Design
This reading is a compilation of several short articles/stories. In the first one, the author is a graphic designer. It seems that she is complaining about the lack of seriousness in her job and the way that they have to advertise things such as "butt toners, light beer, and cigarettes." This writing is a manifesto and it is signed by many graphic designers. They are calling "for [their] skills to be put to worthwhile use." This writing makes sense because if I were a graphic designer that had gone through extensive training, I would want to have work assignments that seemed important to me. The next reading is about the difference between advertisements and design. The author claims that consumers can't be expected to see a difference. I agree with this author because as a regular consumer, I do not have the same view of advertising and design as a graphic designer or an advertisor would. Neither of these professions would probably be happy about this article because it does not really speak kindly about either.All of the articles in this compilation are interesting, especially because I don't usually put much thought into the advertising that goes behind product. Now it is clear that it can be a controversial issue, especially for those behind the scenes.