Ha! Made you look.

Before we humans had written language, we used images. Ancient cave paintings all over the world illustrate that our deep-seeded need to tell our stories goes way back. Along the way we've come to rely more and more on written language as our main means of communicating, and we're now inundated with so many stories vying for our attention it's hard to know which ones to pay attention to. Just ask anyone returning from vacation with the dreaded task of opening e-mail for the first time in two weeks.

Given the sheer volume of information we attempt to digest daily, it's no wonder that we make quick decisions about which messages we choose to "hear". It's usually a gut-level response to what something looks like, before we even decide to read the actual words. Does the color palette get my attention? Do the photos intrigue me, draw me in? Is the text laid out in a way that makes it accessible and easy to digest? Of the 20 items in my mailbox, which one will I choose to actually read in the brief moment I have right now?

That's not to say that the words themselves aren't important Once you get someone's attention, you'd better have something worthwhile to say. In the words of the man the New York Times calls the "Leonardo da Vinci of Data", Edward Tufte, "If your words aren't truthful, the finest optically letter-spaced typography won't help. And if your images aren't on point, making them dance in color in three dimensions won't help."

The surest route to being heard is to marry meaningful text with good design. What constitutes good design is a topic for another time, and I'll save my speech about why you probably shouldn't let your neighbor's teenage son who's learning PhotoShop design your company's logo and business cards. The bottom line: the most important message in the world, if poorly delivered, will go unheard.