Slowing Down Graphic Design. Kristian Bjørnard, Maryland Institute College of Art/The Ofice of Kristian Bjørnard, Baltimore MD, USA Abstract: Time and Motion relate to how we understand design’s role in aiding communication. Designed work should be viewable and understood with swiftness. Using this paradigm, understanding time and mo- tion in design allows us to embrace and control speed. The creation of design as it relates to speed initially was based on physical constraints: the actual phys- ics of moving things vs. static things and what that meant for a viewer’s uptake of information. Focus on speedy concepts lead to designed forms like giant neon signs and buildings-as-icons. Billboards with large, singular visual statements become the de-rigueur. Our modern pace dictates a certain size, style, and oversimpliication. Our designed environs become a never ending onslaught to the senses, a frenetic blinking and blooping of sounds, lights, videos, animations, popups, and distractions. I’m interested in what is happening at the opposite end of this spectrum. If the majority of contemporary design is all about speed and literal motion, what does slow design look and feel like? This is about turning the principles of time and motion to the purpose of slowness. I’m interested in see- ing how subverting our typical time and motion knowledge lets us ind an alternative to the ever faster, ever lashier, and ever more epileptic future. A slower, more thoughtful design practice can be explored. Through historical precedent, student projects from my classes, contemporary examples, and personal investigations I’ll explore how modern design can embrace slowness as an alternative strategy. Keywords: Slow Design, Time and Motion, Sustainability An Introduction. I teach a course most fall semesters called “Time and Motion and Graphic Design.” In the fall of 2014, after reading Space-Time Problems by László Maholy-Nagy, an interesting discussion took place. One student asked the rest of us if we had ever considered that there could be multiple speeds of design. The student, Trace Byrd, proposed that we base most of our design decisions on the idea of quickly facilitating understanding. Our modern lives are fast, and so design must be fast to help information and understand- ing keep up with the pace of life. “What then,” Trace asked the class, “does slow graphic design look and behave like?” Trace’s question caused all present to pause and think. What is fast design? What is slow design? I (nor the rest of the class) had not thought about design in this way before. A trajectory was born. For the rest of the fall Trace and several other students made work inluenced by “slow design.”