What's In a Name Tag?

By Henry Petroski

Conveying essential information in a clear, attractive way is a classic design problem

Communications Engineering

Current Issue

This Article From Issue

July-August 2007

Volume 95, Number 4
Page 304

DOI: 10.1511/2007.66.304

During a break at a meeting last fall, I went to the concierge desk to ask directions to the hotel's business center. Several times in the course of speaking to me, the woman behind the desk addressed me as "John." I was not sure why she was doing so or what she might be implying, but I was more interested in following her directions than challenging her bewildering familiarity.

Photographs by Catherine Petroski

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