Words Per Square Foot

“Cost per square foot” is a useful ratio. Likewise “occupants per square foot” and “sales per square foot”. What other “per square foots” could be useful?

Here’s one: “words per square foot”.

Say we have 50 paintings in a 50 x 50 room (2,500 SF). We write a 50-word label for each: title, artist, medium, caption. 2,500 words total. Divide 2,500 words by 2,500 SF. That’s 1 “word per square foot”, aka 1.0 WPSF.

Would we view 50 artworks and read 50 words on each? Sure.

If we wrote 100-word labels, that’s 5,000 words. 2.0 WPSF.

If we added five 500-word wall texts, that adds 2,500 words. 7,500 total. Wordy but not uncommon. 3.0 WPSF. Hm.

200-word labels, 10 wall texts? 15,000 words — 6.0 WPSF. Yikes.

We ran WPSF on some actual current projects. A media-rich history exhibition: 1.5 WPSF for printed text — but there is a media script we haven’t counted. A children’s exhibition: 0.5 WPSF. Ahh.

Here’s the thing:
“Words per square foot” is a new way to see how many words is too many.

What’s the WPSF on your current project?

Warmly,
Jonathan

P.S. For comparison, the article above contains 200 words (MtM articles never have more).