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Jedi Mind Tricks and the Metaphysical
| 7.12.2006
I teach web design at Boston University. One of the things I reiterate time
and time again to all my students is this: You can be the best designer in the
world but if you can’t speak to your designs and articulate why they’re on
brand, on strategy and on target, no one’s going to appreciate them and ultimately buy off. You could be in a client meeting and not say a word and bet bottom last dollar that the client picks the ugly duckling of the bunch. If you look at this
statistically, it makes perfect sense. Most people in the world don’t have very good aesthetic or taste. Just look at all the bad clothes; colors, cars, restaurants and movies that people think are good. If you’re a designer or aesthetically in tune
person, consider yourself lucky AND in the minority.
Defining and articulating brand is even more difficult. Brand is somewhere
between the physical and the metaphysical. Telling people why your layout and
color choices are good, is hard enough but articulating how a person should
feel about a brand or how they should perceive a certain attitude is much more
difficult. In the trade, we sometimes call it “Jedi Mind Tricks” – talking
someone into feeling a certain way about a logo, color or brand statement.
Below is a logo I worked on for a company. This winning mark was well received
by the client marketing team but we all felt that the executives of the
company, who weren’t involved in the day to day discussions, would benifit from
of a description as to what the mark should mean to them, what it's trying to convey, how it maps to their busienss, how it should make them feel and how they should talk about it moving forward.
Check out the logo and logo modifier statement below:
posted at 12:39 PM
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2 Comments:
Hey Scout,
Insightful post. I've found that more often than not, the ability to explain one's design is what differentiates the junior designers and their senior counterparts.
Hope the summer sessions are treating you well!
Ed
hey there,
thanks for your comments. i've met many great designers who were either shy or didn't enjoy "defending" their designs and were destined to be great art directors but probably never a creative director...
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