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Census 2000: Clear, Easy-to-Use, and Quite a Looker

New York, NY, May 1, 2000: Way back in the last century — in 1995, to be exact — the U.S. Census Bureau realized that it faced a formidable challenge: How to convince Americans to open up, fill in, and send back the 2000 Census?

This month, as 120 million Americans answered the government’s Census 2000, they were pleasantly surprised. These federal forms were unusually clear, easy-to-understand, and even good-looking. That’s because these forms were developed by a team of top New York graphic designers, headed by Sylvia Harris and Two Twelve Associates.

When the government retained Harris and Two Twelve, the designers’ first assignment was to create a new graphic identity for the Census 2000. One highly visible result: a distinctive Census 2000 logo splashed across the land on buses, billboards, newspapers, and TV–on Census envelopes and forms. Second, the Census package had to compete effectively with junk mail–it had to proclaim, visually, "Don’t throw me out!" Third, this team of information design professionals had to make the Census easy for everyone to answer, regardless of education or ethnic background.

In addition, the completed Census had to be read by optical scanners. And, all this had to be accomplished inexpensively–and had to look inexpensive–so that no one could claim the Census Bureau had wasted taxpayers’ money. The design team based its Census redesign strategy on a profound respect for the user–a first principle of today’s best information professionals. Their key innovation: To involve the American public in the design process, as well as every department of the Census Bureau. The team initiated a process in which ordinary Americans took part in design development. Focus group discussions and user-testing put Census 2000 prototypes on trial. After each test, the results were applied to the next prototype–the designers learned from the users.

At the design team’s suggestion, the Census Bureau for the first time formed a special committee to steer the project to a successful conclusion. The committee, representing every Bureau department working on the decentenial census, met regularly and debated design changes. This process encouraged constructive criticism and discouraged inter-departmental competition. A test respondent in 1996 summed up the success of the redesigned forms: "This is great. What took you so long!"

The Director of the Census Bureau, Dr. Kenneth Prewitt, told The New York Times in 1999: "We believe the design for the 2000 Census is more robust, more innovative, more creative than it’s ever been."

In the Fall of 1999, a jury of distinguished design experts selected the Census 2000 for a Federal Design Achievement Award, and that prize will be presented to Harris and Two Twelve by the National Endowment for the Arts–its highest award for design excellence. As recipients of that award, Harris and Two Twelve are nominated for the even more prestigious Federal Achievement Awards, to be announced in the Spring 2000.

Sylvia Harris Design Planning is a Brooklyn-based Design Strategist. Two Twelve Associates, one of the nation’s leading graphic design firms, headed by David Gibson and Ann Harakawa, has offices in New York City’s financial district. Its clients have included T. Rowe Price, Citibank North America, Bear Stearns, Disneyland Resorts, and New York’s Grand Central Terminal, Central Park Zoo, Radio City Music Hall, and Rockefeller Center.