Proper Design Invokes The Right Emotion

Whether it is a website or a logo, a good design stirs the emotion of the audience. You get a distinct feeling when you see the theta logo of Toyota that you associate with the company. So too with the stylized H of Honda or the stylized A of Acura. Would Mc Donald’s be the same had its logo been different? Probably not.

This effect is specially important when branding and company image is involved. Like I said, Mc Donald’s bright yellow colored twin arched M has been so much a part of the company that it’s hard to think about Mc Donald’s without that sign or logo popping in your mind. It is therefore important to put some thought into what image you wish to be associated to your company or brand.

Achieving this effect is no mean feat. The designer has to go through a lot of research and study about the client, the intended audience and even the company’s competition. A match must be made otherwise, it may either not reflect the company properly, or not appeal to the company’s target market.

Due to the effort involved in making a proper design, it is a little bit on the expensive side. Design is time consuming. Take Google, for instance. It is not testing just 2 shades of blue and trying to decide between those—it is testing 41 shades of blue!

Apparently, Google thinks that not all shades of blue are created equal in inducing visitors to click at stuff—and they’re right; different designs invoke different emotions. And that’s even just one aspect of the whole design equation.

But there are also cheap logo makers and webpage creators out there who churns out (almost) mass produced graphics. (Note that I did not use the word designers) They can afford to offer cheap works because they don’t put in the time to really go through the design process.

These instamatic graphics makers are killing the real designers. A person who is in the market for a new logo design would not know the difference (who could blame them, they’re not designers) and obviously, would settle for the cheaper ones.

It is tough to sell good design to these people considering that there is no quantitative test to determine efficiency and yield. You cannot say to your client that her return on investment for this logo is such and such. So, customers go for the numbers—price.

Due to the above, I cannot blame Niki Brown for his rant about these el-cheapo operations. I guess there’s hardly anything to be done about it so, caveat emptor!