By Viral Pandya,
Executive Creative Director, Out of the Box, India
Here’s my take on what design can do for communication:
• A better-designed piece of communication makes things easy to comprehend. If nobody reads the ads, don’t just blame the writer. The design should invite people to read, and emphasise what’s important without taxing the readers
Well-designed advertisements cut through the clutter. If your advertisement goes unnoticed, everything else is academic, said Bill Bernbach. Design can make your communication stand out, and work harder
• A communication that is exceptionally designed enhances the product. Most often, the brand experience begins with exposure to the communication. Turning a product into a premium brand starts with a communication that’s designed to enchant
• Rightly, it has been said that the medium is the message. But a corollary of Marshal McLuhan’s maxim is that the reverse is also true; the message can enhance the medium, too. A few months ago, a publication offered to run our ads at a vastly reduced rate. Their representative told me the reason, “Your advertisements make our publication look good”
• Do what others are not doing. The rule works, in life as well as in advertising. And design helps you do ads that no one else does
• Signature styles are fine, so long as you are not a prisoner to them. Don’t fall in love with a typeface or a technique so much that you overdo it
• Read the first letters of the previous six points. The word they form is another reason to take a stab at design brilliance. The One Show Pencil, the Cannes Lion and the One Show Design annuals of the past five years (our work features in all of them) on our shelves remind me to aim for greatness in everything we do
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