JoshuaTree

Many years ago I received a tree identification book for Christmas. I was at my parents' home, and after all the gifts had been opened I decided to go out and identify the trees in the neighborhood. Before I went out, I read through part of the book. The first tree in the book was the Joshua tree because it only took two clues to indentify it. Now the Joshua tree is a really wierd-looking tree and I looked at that picture and said to myself, "Oh, we don't have that kind of tree in Northern California. That is a weird-looking tree. I would know if I saw that tree, and I've never seen one before." So I took my book and went outside. My parents lived in a cul-de-sac of six homes. Four of those homes had Joshua trees in the front yard. I had lived in that house for thirteen years, and I had never seen a Joshua tree. I took a walk around the block, and there must have been a sale at the nursery when everyone was landscaping their new homes--at least 80 percent of the homes had Joshua trees in the front yards. And I had never seen one before! Once I was conscius of the tree, once I could name it, I saw it everywhere. Which is exactly my point. Once you can name something, you're conscious of it. You have power over it. You own it. You're in control. (p. 13)"

Well, the premise of this book is age-old: knowledge is power. Most people can look at a poorly designed page and state that they don't like it, but they don't know what to do to fix it. In this book I will point out four basic concepts that are used in virtually every well-designed job. These concepts are clear and concrete. If you don't know what's wrong with it, how can you fix it? Once you recognize the concepts, you will notice whether or not they have been applied to your pages. Once you can name the problem, you can find the solution.(p.11)"