A Marketer's guide to design.
Why do marketers need to know design?
Unfortunately, marketers are given the duty of approving design. This is a strange occurrence because marketers, to the best of my knowledge, aren't trained in design at all. There is a disclaimer to this piece and that is that it only applies to designers who have a strong, articulated process and understand that design and art are worlds apart. Design is not a subjective, emotional process but rather a logical, problem solving methodology that integrates emotion where necessary to meet an objective.
Anyone who does otherwise might be an artist and anything less might be a dilettante though neither are designers. If you call yourself a designer but you don't have the legwork behind you, I implore you to pick up books and skills and learn to be a proper designer (and I don't mean qualified). You're taking a royal dump on a prestigious field full of hardworking, serious designers. Being proficient at using software doesn't make you a designer.
What design is also happens to be the first thing that marketers need to know about design. If you want to see a conversation between a marketing manager a designer check this out.
What is design?
The root of the word design comes from the Latin "designare" which roughly translates to "to designate". This is the process of creating and shaping something with a set of properties that give it a function - whether that function is psychological, physical or otherwise is up to the purpose of creation.
When an object is created in the world by humans, before it is materialized, it's an idea. The idea is derivative of a function - we want something done so we make something that can do it. This is true of a table, a spoon, a couch, a building and anything else you can think of. So the first thing that a man-made creation has is a function. However, to actually materialize this object, because to materialize something is to move it from the abstract realm of thought into the physical realm of space, it needs to have a shape - a physical form. This form has to meet the original function as well as contain an aesthetic function because why build something that's ugly?
Form isn't only limited to physical forms - that was only used above to simplicity of explanation. When designing a customer experience, the form is psychological and systematic. When designing a strategy, the form moves from thought to the future, bridging it with the present. When designing economic policy, the from moves from thought to the socioeconomic plane. When designing software architecture, the form moves from thought to the binary world.
At it's core essence, design is the structuring of thought to understand a function and materialize a form.
Therefore, a graphic designer is someone who understands a required behavioral or psychological function and creates a form using visual elements that adequately executes that function. A fashion designer understands a required emotional and social function and creates a form, through fabrics, that meets that function. A product designer structures materials and forms to perform an objective function. You get the picture.
Design is a Process
As you can see, there's a repetitive nature to design. A required function is plugged in as an input, sent through the design process and the resulting form is the output. Design is also used to understand problems better. What designers have noticed after years of working on these high-level problems is now a computer scientist mantra. Garbage in, Garbage out. Half the difficulty of solving a problem is to understand what the real problem is. Too often we are stuck trying to treat symptomatic problems without digging in deep enough to understand the nature of the disease. There are some benefits to treating symptoms - for example, it's better than doing nothing at all albeit never as useful as actually curing the disease.
The design thinking process is used in all scales of problem solving, from designing systems and processes at a global or national scale to a simple poster. It is an iterative process of empathizing with the human beings who use or interact with what ever that is being designed and develops a solution to address the discomfort in the interaction. Design thinking is a deep topic and there are many books that have been written on it and I will not explain it any further here.
However there are other processes that are used in design. As long as information is structured with an objective, the process that is accomplished with is design.
I'll write a little extra about graphic design because that's a sub-discipline that marketers interact with on an almost daily basis.
Graphic Design
Graphic design is a a process of understanding the structure of visual information whether that is lettering, forms, colours, repetition, structures, textures or anything else you can think of, to achieve an objective through the creation of a form. In the realm of marketing, this could be to drive brand recall, to drive conversions or anything else that is considered a marketing KPI.
The seasoned, experienced designers go as far as to understand neuroscience and cognitive and behavioral psychology to better pursue their field - a big stretch from the pixel pushers you might be acquainted with if you've gotten this far.
The process of coming up with a graphic concept for marketing is generally strongly rooted in human behavior because the point of marketing graphics or advertising is to inspire a behavioral change. It's really a logical process. A good way of shortlisting design teams, if you're shopping for one is to inquire as to what their process is. If you want a more visual reference, take a look at the AIGA archives or the Communication Arts archives. These are some of the best designers to have walked the planet.
This article is aimed at inspiring anyone reading it to the breadth and depth of the subject of design - something many of us are never exposed to.
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Dhyresh Mendis
is a Graphic Designer specializing in Brand Identity Design. His love for structures and systems has sent him on a journey to understand the fields that Identities support at great depth - Marketing and Brand Building.
Why do marketers need to know design?
Unfortunately, marketers are given the duty of approving design. This is a strange occurrence because marketers, to the best of my knowledge, aren't trained in design at all. There is a disclaimer to this piece and that is that it only applies to designers who have a strong, articulated process and understand that design and art are worlds apart. Design is not a subjective, emotional process but rather a logical, problem solving methodology that integrates emotion where necessary to meet an objective.
Anyone who does otherwise might be an artist and anything less might be a dilettante though neither are designers. If you call yourself a designer but you don't have the legwork behind you, I implore you to pick up books and skills and learn to be a proper designer (and I don't mean qualified). You're taking a royal dump on a prestigious field full of hardworking, serious designers. Being proficient at using software doesn't make you a designer.
What design is also happens to be the first thing that marketers need to know about design. If you want to see a conversation between a marketing manager a designer check this out.
What is design?
The root of the word design comes from the Latin "designare" which roughly translates to "to designate". This is the process of creating and shaping something with a set of properties that give it a function - whether that function is psychological, physical or otherwise is up to the purpose of creation.
When an object is created in the world by humans, before it is materialized, it's an idea. The idea is derivative of a function - we want something done so we make something that can do it. This is true of a table, a spoon, a couch, a building and anything else you can think of. So the first thing that a man-made creation has is a function. However, to actually materialize this object, because to materialize something is to move it from the abstract realm of thought into the physical realm of space, it needs to have a shape - a physical form. This form has to meet the original function as well as contain an aesthetic function because why build something that's ugly?
Form isn't only limited to physical forms - that was only used above to simplicity of explanation. When designing a customer experience, the form is psychological and systematic. When designing a strategy, the form moves from thought to the future, bridging it with the present. When designing economic policy, the from moves from thought to the socioeconomic plane. When designing software architecture, the form moves from thought to the binary world.
At it's core essence, design is the structuring of thought to understand a function and materialize a form.
Therefore, a graphic designer is someone who understands a required behavioral or psychological function and creates a form using visual elements that adequately executes that function. A fashion designer understands a required emotional and social function and creates a form, through fabrics, that meets that function. A product designer structures materials and forms to perform an objective function. You get the picture.
Design is a Process
As you can see, there's a repetitive nature to design. A required function is plugged in as an input, sent through the design process and the resulting form is the output. Design is also used to understand problems better. What designers have noticed after years of working on these high-level problems is now a computer scientist mantra. Garbage in, Garbage out. Half the difficulty of solving a problem is to understand what the real problem is. Too often we are stuck trying to treat symptomatic problems without digging in deep enough to understand the nature of the disease. There are some benefits to treating symptoms - for example, it's better than doing nothing at all albeit never as useful as actually curing the disease.
The design thinking process is used in all scales of problem solving, from designing systems and processes at a global or national scale to a simple poster. It is an iterative process of empathizing with the human beings who use or interact with what ever that is being designed and develops a solution to address the discomfort in the interaction. Design thinking is a deep topic and there are many books that have been written on it and I will not explain it any further here.
However there are other processes that are used in design. As long as information is structured with an objective, the process that is accomplished with is design.
I'll write a little extra about graphic design because that's a sub-discipline that marketers interact with on an almost daily basis.
Graphic Design
Graphic design is a a process of understanding the structure of visual information whether that is lettering, forms, colours, repetition, structures, textures or anything else you can think of, to achieve an objective through the creation of a form. In the realm of marketing, this could be to drive brand recall, to drive conversions or anything else that is considered a marketing KPI.
The seasoned, experienced designers go as far as to understand neuroscience and cognitive and behavioral psychology to better pursue their field - a big stretch from the pixel pushers you might be acquainted with if you've gotten this far.
The process of coming up with a graphic concept for marketing is generally strongly rooted in human behavior because the point of marketing graphics or advertising is to inspire a behavioral change. It's really a logical process. A good way of shortlisting design teams, if you're shopping for one is to inquire as to what their process is. If you want a more visual reference, take a look at the AIGA archives or the Communication Arts archives. These are some of the best designers to have walked the planet.
This article is aimed at inspiring anyone reading it to the breadth and depth of the subject of design - something many of us are never exposed to.
Dhyresh Mendis
is a Graphic Designer specializing in Brand Identity Design. His love for structures and systems has sent him on a journey to understand the fields that Identities support at great depth - Marketing and Brand Building.