Five tips for great design.
Five tips for great design.
Bill Bernbach (the founder of ad agency DDB) once said “A great ad has four things: Intelligence. Insight. Wit. Surprise.” I totally agree, and would argue that this applies across all design work, not just ad campaigns. Here are 5 more tips that I think contribute to creating great design work.
1. Make everything wonderful.
Great work draws out more great work: it’s a positive feedback cycle. So everything – from the tiniest detail to the largest billboard – should be approached with the mindset that it matters. This is a philosophy of making things wonderful, with “wonderful” being defined as “inspiring delight, pleasure, or admiration; extremely good; marvelous”.
And really, if it can’t be done wonderfully, why bother?
Poor, non-wonderful work doesn’t benefit businesses, customers or designers. In short, if it’s important (and why would we be creating it if it wasn’t??) then why not make it wonderful?
2. Be charming.
You are entering someone’s home, office, or play space with your design work: it’s just common courtesy to be respectful of their time, intelligence and feelings. A lecture (or worse, being dreadfully boring) is rarely a compelling technique. Instead, why not offer viewers some delight and enjoyment? Make them glad that they looked at your ad, app, website or poster. The old adage that “you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar” is certainly true in my experience. In other words, try and be charming!
3. Honesty really is the best policy.
You can generally tell when someone is lying to you – and so can clients and customers. Be honest about your business, what you want and what you’re doing, and you’ll tend to build trust with everyone (employees, customers, suppliers, friends, even your dog). Funnily, people like working with people they like, and buying from brands they trust. Who would have thought?!
4. Everything starts with a story.
Everything starts with a story and a good story inclines your audience to care – emotionally, intellectually and aesthetically (feelings, brain and look). A good story draws the audience in: heck, even a boring story, told honestly and with humour, can become a winning story! The key is to figure out what your story is, what’s relatable about it, and then refer back to Tip #3.
5. Find the small idea.
Life these days can feel overwhelming, so I try and repeat this tip to myself for my own sanity. Focus on one thing at a time and focus on doing it superbly well. It doesn’t mean you can’t do or communicate a million things: it just means that each of those things will be more successful (better understood, created, managed, retained and engaged with) if you create and share them one at a time. A small idea executed well becomes a big idea.
