HOW MAKING BREAD IS LIKE MAKING DESIGN
By Clare Ultimo

Note that our extensive research has proved that there are more similarities than differences in comparing the making of bread to the making of design. If you would like to dispute this, or if you simply have more similarities or differences to add, please email us.

This text first appeared on the Studio Project "Bread Gift." (See the photo) words_bread_popup.html

SIMILARITIES: Making Bread equals Making Design

  1. Crust
    • Bread always has a crust of some kind.
    • Some designers get crusty when they're on their 12th revision.
  2. Slicing & Sharing
    • Bread can easily be sliced to feed many people at one sitting.
    • One design can be reproduced millions of times and be enjoyed by millions of people with just one press run. When using paper, the design can easily be sliced in one sitting. (In this case, scissors rather than knives are suggested).
  3. Making Dough
    • Wheat needs to be ground up, moistened and pounded to become dough.
    • Designers often get pounded and cry before they can make dough.
  4. Without It
    • Without bread, the world's populations would exist in great hardship.
    • Without graphic design, we'd all have to talk to each other without stopping. Vocal-chord strain would be a common malady for people everywhere.
  5. Ingredients
    • Bread is made from many substances including wheat, rye and corn.
    • Design can also have substance and is made from many things, including ideas, information and knowledge. It is preferable, however, not to use corn in your design.

DIFFERENCES: Making Bread does not equal Making Design

  1. Growth Patterns
    • Wheat does not grow wild but must be cultivated. Scientific investigations have proven that even if wheat seems to be growing wild, it was once cultivated by someone.
    • Most great design is picked off trees growing wild in the manholes around Grand Central Station. This undisputed fact seems to be known to everyone except designers.
  2. Temperatures
    • Exact temperatures are needed to make the dough rise.
    • Designers work in all temperatures and often perhaps without air conditioning in the summer.
  3. Color Range
    • Design is capable of at least 1,423,812 colors with 12,814,308 shades and variations in between. And these variations can significantly increase if you're on a very long press run at 3am.

© 1991 Clare Ultimo