NORTHERN PLANNER

Let me start by saying I have a deep and abiding admiration for great designers and great design. 

Great design, how something looks and how we experience it greatly matter to how we feel about it and how it matters in our lives.

The Iphone is an obvious example of experience and aesthetics married beatifully.

But a design idea is not a creative idea. It's not a brand idea. It's not an advertising idea.

Because designers tend to be concerned with pleasing the eye.

Yes, of course, that sometimes means standing out, but more often than not, design follows hallowed rules.Which makes it predictable.

Which, when it comes to brands is isn't commercially sensible.

Because, as has been said often enough, the goal of marketing is to puncture the indifference of people who don't care.

The light buyers who actually decide the fate of brands, rather than the loyalists who don't. If you have a few minutes to spare, you should watch this..

 

Absolutely, building big, consistent symbols of recognition matter. Signposts that get buried in the subconscious. That's most of design's role.

But after you consider the need for distribution,  and constantly removing reasons not to buy (the latter is the role for NPD and comms planning when you strip away the bollocks)…

You always come back to being distinctive. Getting noticed. Capturing the imagination. 

Winning the battle of who could care less.

The craft behind capturing the attention, getting in the head and staying there.

The element of surprise.

The art of making magic.

Not looking for a perfect whole.

Looking for tension, energy and provocation.

Stuff that makes you form on opinion.

Stuff that connects with the heart, not just the head.

That's what seperates ideas people from designers.

It's usually easy to tell the difference.

Do they show you their first ideas as scamps, or loosely written scripts? Or do they always have to retreat to the comfort of the mac?

To they tell you how it looks? Or can they tell you how it works?