Making Life Count

The design world was shocked by the passing of Sylvia Harris on July 24, 2011. Citizen Research & Design, the business founded by Sylvia Harris, contains an announcement of her passing as well as remembrances and links to still more eloquent memories. I didn't know Sylvia Harris. I certainly knew of her and her admirable work.

Sylvia Harris's work was important, had a point, a cause, and was about leading people to great / greater purposes—no easy feat. "Voting by Design," a poster Sylvia art directed for the University of Minnesota's Design Institute, struck me with its clearly successful "communications map of the American voter's experience." I included the poster in Layout Essentials, headed by "Make Space Count."

Sylvia Harris made many things count, including the curtailed time she had to leave a rich legacy of thinking, planning, guiding, and communicating. For me, Sylvia Harris's work speaks for itself.

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Including links to the easily-found (and wonderful personal) recollections seems a bit vulture-like. Besides, a quick search yields all the sites I mentioned. But below is the spread which shows Sylvia Harris's Voting by Design, an extremely disciplined breakdown of a crucial process.