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How to Make Your Graphic Design Direction Effective
Given the proliferation of arts, entertainment, and leisure choices that people have today, standing out among competitors has never been more difficult nor more important. Pick up any newspaper entertainment section sometime. The number of choices and diversity of experiences overwhelm. No wonder people are picking up the TIVO remote at home.
When a person confronts too many choices, that person often decides to walk away from all of them. Consumer behavior researchers call this reaction “choice suppression.�
This behavioral phenomenon drives home an important point; interest in the arts is not enough. Interested people are the ones choosing not to choose. If you want to be chosen, you must pique a specific interest that translates into behavior. Your difference must be understood and you must be easy to find in the cacophony around you. If you can't compel action, you've failed.
Savvy marketers ask themselves, “If everyone is different, how can I be different in a sea of difference?� Good question. If there were marketing koans (questions upon which Zen masters meditate), this would be a doozy.
Some people turn to beauty as a strategy. They believe that beautifully designed communications are noticed first. They envision a beautiful face standing out among a sea of plain mugs, and believe that their problem is solved. If only it were so.
Usually our advertising vehicles are not standing among a sea of plain mugs, they’re one of several contestants in a beauty contest.
Normative conventions that define beauty are quite narrow. Thus, to seek beauty as a defining dimension is to seek sameness, not difference.
Think about the last beauty pageant you saw. In a sea of symmetrical faces, perky breasts, pert noses, and high cheekbones, will any single contestant stand apart? Beauty isn’t necessarily interesting, durable, nor memorable.
To stand apart, consider context. I recall a compelling floral display I once encountered. A single white calla lily stood among stalks of buffalo grass, wheat stalks, cattails, and weathered twigs. The calla lily’s extravagant waxy delicacy, alone among grittier textures and muted color, conveyed an emotional impact that I still recall some 15 years hence. Would more flowers have enhanced my experience? Without question, no.
Why is our reflexive feedback to graphic designers so often “more flowers?�
If you were to ask a graphic designer how they are usually complimented by clients, you’d hear about clients gushing phrases such as “I like it: or “Wow. It’s really beautiful.�
How often do we assess whether the design product is “on-strategy� or “brand—consistent?� More important, why aren’t we evaluating communications products with clearer, more useful criteria?
We don’t establish unambiguous brand-design objectives against which design products must be evaluated. Designers try to give us what they believe we are asking for. If we gush about beauty, they’ll seek to ascertain our notions of beauty, then deliver that dimension. If we ask for “exciting,� that’s what we’ll get.
Since we’re likely to get what we ask for, we better be clear about what we want. If we want to create a strategy that compels choice – if we want to stand out – we need to be unambiguous about how we want to stand out and what standing out looks like.
“More flowers� won’t get us anywhere.
The most effective marketers I know are very disciplined and clear about giving direction. They use tools like a creative brief to work the kinks out in their thinking. They understand that the high-leverage system intervention occurs in giving direction, not in giving feedback. Relying on feedback is analogous to driving with a rear view mirror.
An effective creative brief addresses the following points:
1. Background about the organization and its customers
2. Who are we talking to? (Description of the target audience)
3. How do we want our target audience to respond in behavioral terms?
4. What do we want our prospective buyers to do as a result of the advertising?
5. What is the competitive set? How will our strategy compare/contrast with our key competitors?
6. How are we positioned vis a vis our competitors?
7. What is our desired positioning?
8. What are the challenges/opportunities that the design must address?
9. What attributes, benefits, and values must be emphasized through the communication and design?
10. What are our design objectives?
11. What are our brand values?
12. What tone should be established?
13. What is the personality that the advertising must evoke?
14. What technical or logistical problems must the design solve?
Just like you, your graphic designer wants to succeed, grow, and become better at their craft. They, like you, live for those breakthrough moments when a great process that is diligently executed takes things to the next level. Sometimes they can do this without you, but in the absence of clear direction, they’ll give you beautiful, but not necessarily interesting, on-strategy, or effective design products.
Posted on February 21, 2006 09:45 AM | Permalink
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