Tag: psychology

Having ventured into the colosseum of death/education for three years I learnt a lot about how the mind learns and each person has a unique way they enjoy and digest information best, this is sometimes known as VAK, visual audio and kinaesthetic learning. These processes are extremely useful when designing advertisements or marketing strategies to help reach the largest audience possible. In this post, I will discuss the three learning styles and ways you can approach each learning style in advertising to make people engage with your brand that bit easier. Continue “Using learning styles in advertising and marketing”

The colour black, although widely argued as not a colour, is a colour that is mysterious and secretive and can psychologically give protection from emotions due to its ability to absorb all colours. In this blog post, I will be discussing black and how it influences our branding. Continue “The colour black and its meaning”

The colour red is a very powerful and vibrant colour that seems to demand our attention, only one other colour, yellow, holds this much dominance in gaining our attention and we know that the reason it does is that in nature the colour red signifies danger. Some animals display flashes of red to warn hungry predators that they are poisonous and this is where the basis of this colour’s psychological meaning stems from. In this post, I will look in-depth at the meaning of red, how different shades have different meanings to us, how it relates to our spiritual self,  nature and more. Continue “The colour red and its meaning”

The monocle, the sign of a true sophisticated gentleman also showed the wearer as an intelligent and mature human being. Where has this piece of clothing gone? It takes utter class and confidence to wear something such as this and the design (of which this blog is all about) is nothing short of gold plated genius. In this blog post, I discuss the design of the monocle and 10 famous people that have worn or do wear one. Continue “The monocle , the sign of sophistication and 5 gentlemen who wore them”

Recently I had a message from a young Graphic Communication students about to graduate in need of some current designer’s viewpoints on her dissertation topic. Being someone who likes to help people whenever possible I answered her questions. This is the conversation that unfolded : –

Hi there! I was wondering if you would be able to answer 4 quick questions for me if you have a spare moment? I’m a third year Graphic Communication student and would really benefit from designers like yourself answering a few short questions to help me with my Dissertation!!Hope you can help! Thank you

Can you describe what ‘persuasion‘ means to you in terms of design?

Sure, persuasion for me is a subconscious effort when it comes to design, you don’t necessarily persuade people consciously through design you simply create a desire that is so immense that it becomes so unavoidably attractive that you are persuaded to act on the design whether it is a new product, a message or an interesting new architectural design. Persuasion is about tapping into our human emotions of desire and/or the hunger to improve our lives :).

 Can you describe what ‘manipulation’ means to you in terms of design?

Manipulation is similar to persuasion as every time we design something we are trying to manipulate people to act, we want to almost control the actions and thoughts of the viewer with our designs. Designers want to convince consumers through their own emotional experiences in life that they simply cannot live without our design, knowing it may correct a problem they have or have had,make them become more desirable or simple make them feel happier with their life. As designers we try to manipulate the customers to buy our product or service to enhance their experiences of life, albeit sometimes artificially.

 Describe a situation where you think you have been persuaded & manipulated by design

I am not sure when or if I have been persuaded by design. Being trained to think creatively, artistically and analytically you are constantly aware of design so it is difficult as a designer to be persuaded by ‘concious’ persuasion as we know that we are trying to be convinced to buy. Saying that, if a product is well designed ergonomically and I can see it is manufactured well then I am drawn to it more rather than through clever branding such as apple.

Maybe I have been persuaded or manipulated by design but without actually knowing about it because the best graphic design will only subtly persuade you without the viewer actually realising it is doing so. An example of this subtle manipulation is the marketing message in the Budweiser advert.

Example of subconcious manipulation in advertising

Budweiser used to sell mainly to white middle class Americans but they wanted to expand their market to include the young ethnic market so they released the wassup advert.

In this video every actor has a funny conversation where each friend says wassssuuuup and every one of these people are from the new market group targeted. The fact the advert is funny attracts everyone regardless of race and subconsciously makes it acceptable for people other than the white middle classes to drink Budweiser, a clever design by the advertisers of Budweiser.

Conclusion

There are many times when I look around and can see many manipulations and persuasive messages on billboards and shop windows that are so consciously trying to persuade that they have no effect on those who are creatively trained but like the advert above I found it fun and remember saying wassup to my friends yet didn’t realise the subliminal message that the company wanted to portray that their beverage was for everyone.

Therefore it is possible to suggest that we are being manipulated and persuaded to every day, whether a small advert on a website or a poster on the tube or told a believable marketing messages such as ‘Apple is the best in creating technological advances’, all things that we have been persuaded or manipulated into believing by advertisers and marketing firms.

So next time you are out and about just take a moment to study what you are looking at and be more prepared to analysis what the message is that is trying to be communicated to you to make you act in a certain way.

What are your views on persuasion and manipulation in design? Please comment in the box below.

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