Instructions Are Designer’s Labels of Love

Washington designer Burkey Belser is the wizard behind the Nutrition Facts label on packaged foods, the finest example of information design produced in this country in decades. So it should come as no surprise that he’s a stickler for labels of any kind.

Take the ones on his 10-speed kitchen blender. The buttons were marked Chop, Grate, Grind, Stir, Puree, Whip, Mix, Blend, Frappe, Liquefy. “If I’m not mistaken,” he said recently to colleagues, “you turn this thing on and the blades whir around with a singular purpose: slaughtering everything within reach.” Belser created his own one-word identifier: Vaporize. For the buttons, he created a scale of speed, from “In a Second” to “Now.”

Belser, who is more poet than cook, has customized his microwave oven, too. The original touch pad offered such mesmerizing possibilities as Auto Reheat, Quick On, Micro Time and Micro Temp. As a consumer, Belser found such terms mystifying. As a designer, he knew that confusion diminishes the effectiveness of any product. His family mainly cooks popcorn in the machine, so he relabeled it. Function buttons now say: Popcorn, Power Control, Whatever, Whatever, Whatever. “Appliances are from Venus, consumers are from Mars,” he complains.

Belser is a partner in the Greenfield/Belser marketing agency, founded with his wife, Donna Greenfield. Their specialty is brand design for law firms. The passion for re-imagining housewares comes from Belser’s second persona as guarantor of the public’s right to count calories in a candy bar without squinting.

The Nutrition Facts box identifies at a glance how much fat, sodium and sugar lurks in every portion. The design is so simple that the label works for virtually anyone, regardless of age, eyesight, reading ability, cultural origin or language of birth. Belser had to balance the interests of food lobbyists, government scientists and interested members of Congress. He worked for three hectic months for free, because the Food and Drug Administration had neglected to budget for a design fee. Belser was honored with a Presidential Design Award in 1997. “I can feel good about it,” he says. “Not very often do designers get to impact millions of people.”

Belser and crew have applied the same clarity to a Drug Facts label, which began appearing on over-the-counter medicines in May. Belser also designed the Energy Guide sticker on appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines.