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Don't Lead on Me
In December 1775, “An American Guesser” anonymously wrote to the Pennsylvania Journal:

“I observed on one of the drums belonging to the marines now raising, there was painted a Rattle-Snake, with this modest motto under it, ‘Don’t tread on me.’ As I know it is the custom to have some device on the arms of every country, I supposed this may have been intended for the arms of America.”1

A revolution is brewing. Forces from far and abroad are oppressing academic freedom of individual educators by forcing their methods onto ill equipped personnel. The university design programs in middle America, segregated from the formal drawing rooms and elaborate art traditions of the metropolitan coasts, are the one room school house and of the land. The majority of these institutions on the frontier have a small town student population with little formal art training or critical thinking skills, much less the refined aptitude that quality typographic instruction requires. The lack of student skills and consistent resources make the needs for change great, but solutions from the establishment are limited. On the edge of the design civilization, we make due with what we have, which often means limited resources, art teachers who are not formally trained in design and apathetic students who believe an “A” is an unalienable right. Widespread indifference from majestic design programs and professionals coupled with an inconsistent academic environment has accelerated the need for a curriculum representative of its constituency. The omnipresent influence of the design process has empowered us to overcome our oppression and to breed an innovative form of typographic technology and pedagogy. The revolution has transformed the computer into something more than a production tool.

I have overcome these challenges, which are indeed similar to the ones others face, by utilizing my experience as a student and as a professor in the Midwest. My isolation has forced my to realize the transition from digital to print is often confusing for learners, largely because the various tools, methods, and media are not properly defined, differentiated and coordinated. As the design disciplines continue to overlap, the chances of poor outcomes due to the resulting confusions increase. In topics such as typography, instruction relying solely on digital media and instruction relying solely on the printed page are equally incomplete. Today’s static to digital design environments requires several layers of media instruction that can be difficult for students to integrate.

An inventive approach is needed, but often scorned by even the most progressive educators because of the long traditions associated with art and typography. Dynamic digital media can utilize time based and interactive features as an integrative device to facilitate student comprehension. By preserving some of the vanishing typographic skills, conventions and technologies in a more contemporary medium, a more effective learning environment can ease the transitions from today’s communicative intention to today’s literal and figurative digital application.

Design has reached an intersection where new methods of instruction must be investigated. Having an established system to combine divergent media and principles is key to a creating a consistent educational experience. Our revolution stakes our claim: the oligarchic traditions of the design elite no longer serve the typographic needs of the common student and educator.

We will make the computer available as a tool for both typographic instruction and production. We unite and claim our independence in the traditions our founding fathers have laid down before us.

“’Tis curious and amazing to observe how distinct and independent of each other the rattles of this animal are, and yet how firmly they are united together, so as never to be separated but by breaking them to pieces. One of those rattles singly, is incapable of producing sound, but the ringing of thirteen together, is sufficient to alarm the boldest man living.”

Many scholars now agree that anonymous “American Guesser” was Benjamin Franklin. 2
We call ourselves 629ZEROI.

Source:
Whitten, Chris. “Don’t Tread on Me: The history of the Gadsden flag and how the rattlesnake became a symbol of American independence.” foundingfathers.info. 5 July 2001, updated
September 2002. <http://www.foundingfathers.info/stories/gadsden.html>