Why some words aren’t worth the design brief they’re written on.

What’s in a name? Quite a lot actually, Juliet my dear. Words matter. Particularly when it comes to creating something visual. In design after all, we are in the business of creating tangible expressions of abstract ideas. Words are the bridge between the two.

Imagine if Coke had never previously existed, and was a completely new concept about to launch. The contoured bottle, wave and script have never existed. The brief arrives at the design agency with the challenge to ‘Bring to life the promise of happiness and capture our new tagline ‘Taste the Feeling’. You could scarcely conceive of a more intangible set of measures. What on earth does happiness look like? What colour is ‘THE feeling?’ Design teams usually need someone to translate marketing words into design words. That’s why getting them right is so critical.

I was reminded of the importance of ‘design’ words versus ‘marketing words in a conversation with a client recently (fortunately, the kind of client that recognizes the difference). Here are a handful of words whose ambiguity makes them dangerous in a design brief.

“Iconic”
“Iconic” is a title that’s awarded to a brand by its consumers. Not something that can be uttered into existence by its stewards. Or created by designers overnight.

“Premium”
Premium is a relative term, shifting and redefining itself along with culture, society, lifestyle and economics. If you want a whisky label with gold on it, just say you want a whisky label with gold on it. Premium, after all, means different things to different people (and different cultures).

“Craft”
‘Craft’ in its original sense connotes ‘skill in making’ – a way of doing things that is thoughtful, expert and worth paying more for. But craft has evolved its meaning to become less about the process of creation and more about the output. Craft now denotes a specific set of visual codes: scripts, signatures, hand-drawn illustrations, and a focus on typographic detail. So whilst in truth the Chanel logo, or the Aqua di Parma packs are highly crafted, they would not be considered so in today’s narrow lexicon.

“Authentic”
‘Authentic’ is a great ambition for a brand’s behavior, making it a motivating measure in marketing and advertising briefs. But when transposed to the context of a design brief, ‘authentic’ stops being about behaviour, and becomes solely about style.  There’s a big difference between authenticity as a relative measure (“a design that is authentic to its brand spirit”) or as an absolute one (“a design that looks like Jack Daniels”).

So a few words have lost their true meaning. Have I lost my sense of perspective? Probably. But the problem with poorly chosen words is not just semantics, or even confusion - but that they restrict the potential for creativity. Some words narrow the possibilities that a brief can trigger… the word ‘crafted’, for instance, reduces the response to a brief to a pre-determined creative solution.

The trick with design briefs is to speak in specifics, not ambiguities; to deal in tangible measures, not abstract concepts. “The freedom of a tight brief”, as Leo Burnett put it, is about thoughtfully considered words that lead to original creative thinking.