Do You Speak American?

I’ve recently discovered that I speak “American.” I know that sounds funny, but hear me out and notice that I didn’t say that I speak “English” because I believe the differences are becoming greater and greater.

In preparing for my trip to Germany in December I’ve been scrambling like crazy to try and learn spoken German so I have at least some semblance of communicative normalcy while there and so that I’m not laughed out of the country. The more I learn about the euphemisms of another language, the more I learn about my own. As an overall spoken language, American seems to be much more succinct and caustic than German, or even UK English for that matter. When we as Americans say something we’re usually to the point and loud. It’s almost as if we’re orally writing with a black, wide tip Sharpie. This, no doubt, is a reflection of our culture/lifestyles/desires.

As I do with everything (because I’m so friggin’ neurotic) I started to consider how this relates to design. As American designers do we work in this same way? Of course there are always exceptions to stereotypes, but I think as a whole we do make work that functions as a direct reflection of our spoken language. After all, one of the primary functions of our work is to communicate. Why wouldn’t we do so in a way in which we are most familiar?

When I think of truly American designers creating work with an American voice, I think of designers who are concise and clear and acerbic in their design like James Victore (image above), Chip Kidd, Paula Scher and David Carson—who by the way, responds to my email request for an interview in tomorrow’s post. And no matter what your English-speaking friends tell you, there is absolutely nothing wrong with speaking American!

Keeping on the topic of linguistics: In my Advanced Typography course’s discussion today we invented a new word: “undertucky.” It refers to that instance when either accidentally or purposefully someone tucks their t-shirt into their underwear.

Here’s the latest list of pros I have pestered for an email interview.

Neville Brody
David Carson
Chip Kidd
April Greiman
Michael Bierut