CARTOONS ARE SIMPLE We should admire the profession of cartooning. Cartoonists are daily faced with the challenge of making all sorts of readers smile and laugh by delivering an image and text in a simple, direct fashion. I suggest that they do this by using a simplified approach. -
Cartoonists use simple language and images. Through its use of parable, a cartoon must speak to a wide audience. -
Cartoonists focus on the basics. A cartoon strips the topic down to its bare essentials without clouding them in detail. The philosophy is that while the details may be important, they can always come later by reading about it elsewhere. Nonetheless, they won't be worth anything if the fundamentals are not understood first. -
Cartoonists do not think for us. A cartoon should encourage us to interpret its message for ourselves. In this way, our conclusions are much more powerful and much more likely to stay with us. Perhaps most powerful of all, is that cartoonists' results are concepts that can be easily shared. Readers of "cartoons" become members of an informal "club." They might share a new "language" and can readily compare each other's individual approaches to change using the simple cartoons. Cartoonists have to make the complex simple and direct. There are no second chances. |