Even if you don’t know much about graphic design, you can probably throw out a few cocktail-party-worthy truisms: “Comic Sans is just the worst typeface ever.” That statement is irrefutable, right? As unassailable as grass being green, Shakespeare was a genius, and Tina Fey is way funnier than Seth MacFarlane. If you want to come off as a typography dilettante, you might make some seemingly inoffensive remark like, “Well, you can’t go wrong with Helvetica.” And if Craig Ward overheard you, he’d most likely shudder and take a subtle step toward the door. It’s hackneyed statements like these that he tries to dismantle in his pocket-size Popular Lies About Graphic Design .

According to Ward, a New York–based British designer, Comic Sans “is the typographic equivalent of an innocent man on death row.” Sure, it’s ugly, he admits, but there are plenty of other bad handwriting fonts that don’t stir up nearly as much unfair bile and vitriol. And as far as Helvetica goes, it’s hardly the typographic corollary of the perfect black dress, suitable for any occasion. It may be “as ubiquitous a typeface as has ever existed,” but don’t mistake ubiquity for neutrality; Helvetica, in fact, is an “authoritative typeface with a distinct tone of voice.” If you’re looking for vanilla, you’d be well advised to look around for another font.

Don’t feel bad if you’ve adopted some arguments Ward might find specious; even professional designers lean on well-worn rules and generalities to help create guidelines, and others will argue against them. You, like Mies van der Rohe and Dieter Rams, may subscribe to the philosophy of “less is more.” In Popular Lies, Milton Glaser says that maxim is patently false. Ward says that the book is meant to encourage designers to experiment, “examining other possibilities when it may be easier to side with something tried and tested.”

Here are a some of the choice gems, from Ward and some of his famous-designer friends in response to the question: What’s the biggest lie you’ve ever been told about design?





—Craig Ward

My experience may be unique. But for my money, you rarely need more than a few weeks for most still image projects. Obviously, if you’re attempting something more ambitious, or time related, then you may need longer, but, really, three or four rounds of amends over the course of a couple of weeks is usually ample. Much more and you can end up wasting your time chasing unworkable ideas or losing focus, much less and you may feel under too much pressure to deliver and that, in itself can be equally stifling.