By Jessica Bourn
I've been keeping up with a series on Youtube where the producers interviewed an astronaut about the differences between Earth and space. Each video is titled something along the lines of, "Astronaut explains how ____ is Different in Space". Space travel has always been an interesting subject for me, but I'm sure you're wondering why I've started this marketing/design/social media blog about an astronaut's interview on Youtube. I'm taking inspiration from that idea, and I'm here to explain how design is different in marketing and why good design is key to a business's success.
The basis of good design is conveying a message or information in an effective way. I say "effective" because the intent behind the design is open to interpretation. The beauty of designing simply for art's sake is that everyone sees the message a little differently based on their own life experiences.
The difference between artistic design and a design created for marketing purposes is that the interpretation needs to be very focused for marketing. You want your viewer's eye to be caught on the advertisement and they need to receive the message you want to convey in the shortest amount of time possible- especially for social media, where an endless scroll of information is available at the tap of a finger!
Effective design from a marketing standpoint is, in a general sense, fast-paced and upbeat. This is certainly not always the case, but for a lot of the marketing that we do here at Mansell Media, we want to ensure that our clients are getting sharp ads that catch the eye of potential customers as quickly as possible.
Have you ever strolled through the store and picked up an item simply because the packaging was unique or pleasing? This happens to me all the time! Humans are naturally drawn to aesthetically-pleasing things, and marketing has cashed in on that- big time. I've written other blog posts about branding and color psychology, which are the major factors in design for marketing purposes.
All of this to say: designing for art's sake and designing for marketing are about as different as sleeping on the International Space Station is from sleeping in your bed on Earth!
Jessica Bourn