Blog Post 5: Understanding Why
By Jordan Davies
After watching Simon Sinek’s lecture on the why factor of branding, it led me to thinking more in depth about why I do the things I do when designing, and the questions I ask while looking at other people’s designs. Typically, on a day-to-day basis, I don’t usually think that in depth about why I do the things I do. Sadly, I feel like a lot if my life is just going through the motions, being in a routine because that is what I am used to. Occasionally, if I do something I don’t normally do I will ask myself why I’m doing it, but not often. Same thing goes for when I’m looking at designs or apps/websites, I don’t typically stop to ask why it’s the colors it is, or why the font is the size it is, or why they chose the photography they did, I just look and know it was for a reason.
This makes me think a lot about brands I like, and why I like them. I am attracted to simplistic, neutral colored, soft designs. I am attracted to these because they just are satisfying to look at, but I don’t really know the deeper reason why I think those are more satisfying to look at than other types of design. It gives me a bit more insight into the fact that a brand is so specific to their own guidelines, and everything is so strategic and intended, it makes me want to compare different brands I like and figure out the common factors between them and why I specifically like them.
As far as the brand I am creating, I want to make sure I am applying these strategies to my brand, to make it as personalized as possible. Since presentation is such a vital part of brand design, I want to make sure I have all the answers as to why each aspect of my brand is what it is. I think it’s easy to get caught up in just doing work because of deadlines or because of habits, but it’s important to slow down and strategically design to fit your brand’s themes and guidelines. I think I need to go back and implement this more into my work. It will affect the work I’m doing on my poster. It effects my color palette choices, placement, hierarchy, basically every element that is on my poster will need to be though out thoroughly.
