1. To give a reason to remember.
2. To give strong emotion over-riding logic.

RECALL. Through the years, we have seen specialist in branding and marketing educating us about what branding is, and how we should grow a brand. To the normal everyday consumer, all that they are tying to do can be summarized into one word “RECALL”. All we are trying to do, is to get people to remember the product. Be it a person, a car or even a piece of clothing… our desired effect after advertising is for a few seconds of memory inside each consumer’s head.

Understanding how the brain works explains why design is important. Memory can be split into 2 parts, short-term memory and long-term memory. To get into long-term memory you always have to start with thoughts already in the short-term memory… so lets focus there. We forget
for a number of reasons, and usually people think its about our aging brain. On the contrary, the fact that we forget, is that there are new memories formed every second… and as newer memories cloud our head, the older ones which has not been used, tend to be forgotten. So the more you remind yourself of something, the longer that something stays in your memory. Which brings me back to why design is so important. With design, we can capture a consumer’s attention therefore creating a memory. Therefore the most effective design is often one that is some sort… ODD… or different.. enough to cause a disruption and stop people… one that is MEMORABLE.

EMOTIONS. While what was mentioned with RECALL seems almost functional, there is this emotional attachment with design that cannot be denied. Ever been caught between buying an Apple IPod or a Creative MP3 player? You know the feeling.

A combination of colours, form, shadows, proportions, placement… gives an identity unique to every design created. And the reason for every design created, is to convey a certain emotion. It’s this emotion that many fashion designers have used to separate their work from others. The same can be seen in product design and advertising as a whole.

So without design, the world would be the same throughout and we would have nothing to remember us by. It creates an identity about us and about others. The one thing that defines us but yet brings us together.

That’s why design is important to me.
So why is design so important to you? Leave a comment and let me know.