Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1991 - 57

technical information in a sophisticated
visual manner, they get low marks.
The kind of drawings that communicate technical information in
magazine are frequently not the orthographic dtawings that we designers and
technicians have been trained to use in
our daily work. Yet when dtawings are
suppLied, they are obviously included "as
is" without any tequests for revision or
additions.
Articles based on submissions from
skilled craftsmen and women out on the
front Lines are limited or nonexistent. My
guess is that this is primarily due to the
lack of submissions. Not feeling
comfortable communicating by writing
and not having "presentable" drawings
and photos for publication, most
technicians (especially professional, nonacademic technicians) avoid making
submissions to either TD&T or Theatre
Crafts. Ask yourself, "How many articles
do I recall which originated from
technicians in professional shops?" Then
ask yourself, "What am I missing?" The
road to a solution is not easy and it is
guaranteed to be costly. These are some of
my thoughts on the subject.
First, there must be a new dedication
in technical theatre publications to devote
more editorial space to specific technical

subjects. This need not be to the exclusion
of academic design-oriented, general
interest, or any other kind of article that
presently fills up the editorial space. What
I propose is a concrete commitment by
TD&T to begin by devoting 30 to 40
percent of editorial space to detailed
advanced level technical articles.
Next, we must change our editorial
orientation and serve up graphically
sophisticated visual information ro
readers. How? The best beginning is by
employing editors and art directors who
can take submitted phoros, shop
drawings, napkin scribbles and text in
whatever level of polish, and translate
them into a visual and writren magazine
format equal ro that in the best tech
magazines out in other fields.
Third, we must be aggressive about
getring submissions from the craftsmen
and women who are skilled at their craft,
but who wouldn't normally think of
submitting materials or ideas ro a
magazine. We must also be aggressive
about developing contacts and making
sure that interesting projects and
productions get covered.
Here it might be helpful to digress and
reveal the secret of success of the Taunton
Press publications like Fine Woodworking
and Find Homebuilding. Both these

publications rely almost exclusively on
working craftsmen and builders. These
craftsmen are no better trained at drawing
or writing for magazine publication than
most of us technicians. Submissions range
in form from poorly lit photos with hand
scribbled notes and sketches ro professional photos of work, detailed
construction drawings, and superb
writing. They do, in fact, tend toward the
former. The editors, however, realize that
a craftsman's ability ro draw or write
about his work is not directly related to
the value of the work itself. When the
edirors see something among the
submissions worth documenting, they
commit all their resources to presenting it.
Ofren, the editor in charge of the article
will travel to the builder's or craftsmen's
place of work and take the necessary
quality photos him or herself. The art
director will assimilate all the information
from the submirted photos, drawings,
scribbles, phone conversations, and text
and instruct his artists in creating the
drawings that best communicate the
information. The editors often almost
rotally rewrite the article (while still
keeping the craftsman as author, for it is
the craftsman's intellectual property) so it
is clear, detailed and easy to read. Side
bars with additional pertinent

Knudson· Benson
Associates Inc.
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TD&T

1991 SPRING

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