Graphic Design Education | Many Colleges DON’T Teach
This post shows you the advanced graphic design education that many design schools don’t even teach. It’s a way to go deeper into the thinking of how our designs interact with the psychology of people. Taking things deeper in this way, our graphic designs do become more advanced, and thus they become more effective in the process.
In this post, I talk about a way of thinking and designing that few design schools or college degrees ever teach or talk about. It’s a part of graphic design rarely discussed, but which can help you design in a far better way.
Graphic design is something that people don’t typically understand fully or enough. Graphic designers aren’t meant to create cool or pretty designs, rather we are meant to create visual communication that targets specific groups of people.
So if you want to create better graphic designs and have them be more effective for your clients, make sure to watch and then apply the things taught in today’s post. You will become a far better designer if you end up doing that.
If you found today’s post on deeper education that design schools don’t teach enjoyable or useful, let me know in the comments section.
I promise that once you shift to the way you think about your graphic designs. The way that you create your designs will totally change for the better 100% guaranteed.
An Important Question
This is a smartphone you have one and I have one too. Looking at the smartphone ask yourself, why do people buy it in the first place? Well, the first obvious thing is that people would normally say that they get a phone so they can text and call people right.
Things Go Deeper
Sure but it does go far deeper than that. As designers, we should be trying to tap into deeper thoughts. That people might have you know the ones that govern their feelings. People likely by a phone so they can stay up to date with their social media life of course. But this is only scratching the surface.
Sure we can look at all of the tech reasoning behind getting a phone. Like how my phone is my alarm clock or like how I use my phone to lose a load of money in the stock market.
We Need To Go Even Deeper
But we need to go even deeper than that. One of the biggest reasons why people buy smartphones or shall I say have the most up-to-date model is belonging.
Thought Experiment For Samsung
People want to feel like they belong to the mass crowd. Now you can take quality images and access the internet perfectly fine on a four-year-old Samsung or Apple phone. But people strive to have the latest tech because it is a symbol of status. There are many reasons to have a phone some are emotional and some are technical. But let’s do a quick thought experiment.
You’ve been hired by Samsung to create a poster to market the new galaxy model. According to Samsung, they strive to create innovative technology whilst designing to appeal to the more younger generations.
The Archetype Trick
Cool, but now we actually have to think like the target audience of Samsung. Branding can sometimes make use of theories of archetypes. An archetype is basically a set of personality traits that specific types of people can be labeled with. Brands spend a lot of time finding out what archetype or archetypes their brand aligns with.
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Archetypes
- Make an impression
- Connect to others
- Provide Structure
- Yearn for paradise
This is so they can then make sure their product’s graphic design and the marketing will resonate with the right audience. Samsung can typically be given the archetype of every man. This archetype label is related to belonging kind of seeking out connections and friendship equality and the fear of loneliness. This goes right back into the thinking that people want to have a phone to belong and also to fit in. Then furthermore going back to how Samsung themselves have said they market their brand to younger people. We actually do know that younger people like to try and fit in even more than older people.
Applying Archetypes To The Design
Now that poster for the new Samsung Galaxy phone. What kind of approach will we now have with our design. The design will likely use models in the late teens to early 20s. We probably want to see people connecting socializing and just having fun. We might also want to include ideas of innovation and exploration so that we reflect the nature of the technology itself.
Samsung Has 2 Archetypes
Next point in today’s post. That is Samsung actually have two archetypes, yep that’s right a second archetype.
It’s not actually that uncommon for brands to do this and for Samsung, they actually target the explorer archetype. The explorer archetype craves adventure they want to explore the world for themselves. They often stay current with trends and they encourage other individuals to have the initiative to grow.
But how have Samsung actually played on this archetype? A lot of the marketing for Samsung has been based around exploration. Again this does go back to younger people because they are the ones who typically want to explore the world with new feelings and experiences. Showing astronauts or new mystical experiences within a design will tap into this yearning for exploration in the young target audience.
Mouthwash?
Let’s quickly take a different object, let’s say mouthwash. So thinking like we did with phones, think about mouthwash. What is the basic idea as to why people buy this stuff in the first place? What is to stop themselves from getting cavities and their teeth just falling out.
But we know by now we have to go deeper than that. People want to be socially accepted and not to face any degree of shame or embarrassment. Having a smelly breath is a surefire way to get those negative situations. So mouthwash is a key to social peace for many people. Also at night time when they brush their teeth and then swirl with mouthwash. They will feel accomplished as if they’re doing the right thing.
Now you’ve probably felt that kind of really nice subtle feeling when you know you’re doing something right for your health. It’s almost like a self pat on the back so to speak. That’s how brands can actually influence people with decision-making by dumping anxiety onto them and then supplying a solution for that anxiety.
A Perfect Example
In this case bad breath and mouthwash. As a quick last example take a look at this design here which aims to promote running and also a device that tracks the steps.
Sure people want to run or jog to stay fit and healthy we all know that. But what is the deeper meaning? In this design notice all of the objects that are trappings of the nine-to-five work job like the laptop and so on. The run is abandoning these things and literally running away from them escaping them. Running can be mentally therapeutic to many different people and they use it as a form of escapism. That’s how you can make a design concept by thinking more deeply about what people feel. Remember that if you do think like this when designing anything it means you’re going to make better designs. Make the best and most effective designs that you can.
