DESIGNERS HAVE KEY ROLE IN METRIC CONVERSION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85-00988R000400060056-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 22, 2003
• Sequence Number: 56
• Publication Date: November 1, 1977
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2003/11/06 : CIA-RDP85-00988R000400060056-2
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Designers have key role
in metric conversion
"Metrication will lead to an information ex-
plosion," declares an Australian government
official whose country has made the change in
recent years from conventional measurement
to the metric system.
Hans J. Milton, who, as Australia's Assistant
Secretary for Housing Research, was heavily
involved in that change, made this prediction
in a paper urging graphic designers in this
country to prepare for the major role they must
play in helping Americans understand and
accept the metric system.
Milton noted that only the United States and
four small Third World countries have not yet
made the conversion to the metric system,
now an almost universal standard. Since
Congress passed the U.S. Metric Act of 1975,
however, major changes in the way we deter-
mine and express dimensions and capacities
are inevitable. In a paper he wrote while on
loan from his government to the National
Bureau of Standards, Milton said:
"Early awareness of lead times is required
to schedule graphics, typesetting, proofing,
and printing during the metric change be-
cause demands for each of these services is
likely to escalate."
With the approach of actual usage in the
United States, Milton predicts, there will be
increasing demand for three principal types of
metric information:
1. General advisory or instructive material.
This will include basic literature to explain the
correct use of the international system of
units-the formal term to describe the system
that was adopted by a 1960 treaty signed by
most major nations.
2. Detailed metric technical material. Ref-
erence material in metric units for use during
the transitional period and after the economy
becomes fully metric will include handbooks,
codes, standards, specifications, product lit-
erature, and price lists. Although in many in-
stances the structure and layout of existing
publications may be retained, diagrams,
charts, tables, and other graphic material may
need to be revised and redesigned.
3. Visual information and aids. Metric post-
ers, charts, maps, special aids, and metric
identification symbols can facilitate the
change to the metric system.
The experiences of designers in Great Brit-
ain and Australia contain some pitfalls Ameri-
can designers should try to avoid, Milton says.
One common failing is to try to provide too
much information so that the visual impact and
education value is negated. As an excellent
example of a" single impact" poster. he cites a
design for the British Construction Industry
Training Board showing the bottom of a foot.
The caption reads: "This is not a foot it's 300
mm." By contrast, an Australian poster de-
scribing metric measurement for the real es-
tate industry suffered from what Milton called
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Metric-continued
material for four posters.
Most of the countries that have preceded
the United States in the change have estab-
lished a national metric symbol. Canada,
which combines a stylized "M" with the outline
of its traditional maple leaf, has issued a man-
ual with explicit instructions for using this
symbol. An "M" appears in the center of a map
of Australia in that country's symbol. Britain
uses a key with an "M" in the blade of the key.
Milton suggested that an annual metric
poster competition be held to assist in educa-
tional activities during the transitional period.
These would be judged for content, visual im-
pact, and accuracy.
He suggested that as one of its first actions,
the National Metric Board, which Congress
established to coordinate the conversion, ini-
tiate a national graphic design competition for
development of a U.S. metric symbol. Coun-
tries that have preceded the United States in
metrication, he said, have found such sym-
bols highly useful for quick identification of
metric items and for providing a national
theme for the creation of metric awareness.
Approved For Release 2003/11/06 : CIA-RDP85-00988R000400060056-2