I found this week’s reading to be very interesting. I though Richard Lanham made a bunch of excellent points in his The Economics of Attention. After thinking about what he has said, I have realized how much our culture really has gravitated toward being centered around “fluff.” Before anything is put out in stores for consumers, there is a team of people that decide how the product will look, from its design to its packaging. Often times the packaging is the reason why certain products are bought over others. Lanham brought up an excellent example of people buying cars. No longer are people buying cars solely based on engine performance or how many miles to the gallon the car gets. Looks plays a very important role. An ugly car with moderate engine performance may not get sold over the nice looking car that doesn’t perform as well.

I also found Tufte’s Visual Confections to be an interesting read. Text in illustrations is often something that goes looked over an unnoticed. I think artwork that incorporates text well is both unique and powerful. The right text in the right picture could just as easily start a revolution as end one.