NGM Blog Central - America, the Exotic - National Geographic Magazine

Not too long ago, senior design editor John Baxter designed souvenir programs for the Ringling Bros. circus. "Step right up!" his booklets proclaimed. "See the Human Comet! Bareback Jugglers! Elephants! The Globe of Death!"

The other day I asked if his time under the big top inspired his design for our July story on America's state fairs (above). "I suppose it did," he said. "It's an old circus billboard technique: shout with big type, then explain with small."

John came to this solution in a roundabout way.

His first idea for the opening spread played an image of roller coaster riders across both pages. Then that picture moved to the end of the story, leaving John up against deadline without a lead photo or headline. In desperation, he says, he dug back into his memories of circus work.

Now as then, his task was the same: grab attention. Only this time, Garrison Keillor's text and Joel Sartore's photography were the main attractions.

He certainly captured an audience—and not only among U.S. readers. More than a third of our 29 foreign language editions published the story. For them, state fairs are "exotic," says international editions text editor Justin Kavanagh—a uniquely American mix of circus and agricultural expo.

Although the Dutch simplified John's design, most translated it word for word (above). That's not to say everything about the story made an easy transition to another tongue. Our Slovenian edition stumbled on the term state fair itself. "To them, anything with the word 'state' sounds officious, like the way we use federal," says Kavanagh. "They went with agricultural expo."

Garrison Keillor's distinct voice wasn't easy to grasp either. To help, our international department prepared a 19-page guide, deciphering 313 quintessentially Keillor terms like pigcentric, razzmatazz, sarsaparilla. "Bleaugh," it said, is a word that "sounds like and suggests disgust," which I assume proved useful when translating pig fat, corn dog, and deep-fried Snickers.

—Oliver Uberti

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