Good design is everyone's concern

Several days before Thanksgiving, the MARC train police were passing out safety brochures on the platforms. I grabbed one and studied it on my way to work.

The overall design was very nondescript, so let's skip straight to the point.

Here's the inside:

Whoa.

The first thing I thought was, "That's a TON of text."

Then, I thought, "This looks like a pattern."

And that made me think, "I sound like Amy."

And finally, I came to, "What is the solution to this visual problem?"

I initially thought about just removing the text completely. But on closer inspection, this is a list of organizations that are involved in this safety initiative. That information is not completely unnecessary, but in a six panel brochure, filling two entire panels with this text gunk is not a smart use of space.

I then decided to keep the most important, say, ten names, post the remainder on a website, and then include a link to that website. But what if The Powers That Be are rigid and I, as the designer, am required to include every. single. one. of God's children in this brochure?

I know I'd make the text smaller and try to shrink it down to one panel. I also know I'd move it to the back. The middle two panels are no place for this kind of riffraff.

But what else can be done? What would you be your solution? A word cloud? Two columns instead of one? Thoughts?