Laughingstock of The Creative – Design!

Design does not just explain The Aesthetics of The Finished Ad or Product – It is born with the first stroke of the Artist’s Brush. Sadly, The essence of the term ‘Design’ has started getting Misunderstood, in some cases, quite blatantly.

We are allegedly involved in the robbery of ideas from the West – the English and Americans to be more precise. Taking no offence, let us begin this debate on “the significance of design in the ad-world” by taking a cue from the Cambridge dictionary of American English. The word “design”, as a noun, informally refers to a plan for the construction of an object (as in architectural blueprint, circuit diagrams and sewing patterns). As per the same dictionary, “advertising” is an example of a vital design discipline known as “Communication Design”. But even the very lexicographers would agree that the above-mentioned dictionary meaning of design is not overwhelming by any standards. Why? Design in truth, cannot carry any specific definition! In safest terms, it would simply mean a “language that any form of visual communication must speak”. If communication is an expression, design is simply the language.

Design gives stature!

Did you ever notice that every commercial advertisement contains more than one aspect of design? The name of the brand, which is conspicuously highlighted (like in the latest Airbus print ad, with the Airbus A380 laid out on a US dollar bill; for the record, the Airbus name appears 8 times in the ad, while A380 appears 11 times!) or is deliberately underplayed (like the latest Royal Dutch Shell print ad, where the name Shell appears only once, that too in an email address given on the spread) is a part of the ‘nomenclature design’. Then comes the content of the advertisement, which is actually designed in a way that makes the entire offering appeal to your eyes, so that when you see words written, you just don’t see words, but beautifully written words stitched together. We call it ‘content design’. To incorporate a human being who is endorsing the brand, there would be ‘casting design’, to portray him/her in a certain desired fashion. This would call for a ‘costume design’ (remember the bright green, blue and red dress that Kareena Kapoor dons in the latest Sony Viao TVC to match the changing colours of the notebooks?). And to ensure a free flowing sensible script, there will be a ‘script design’ (a storyboard that has a lasting influence of the viewers – like the Roberto Carlos PepsiCo ad in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where he scored during a free kick; sadly, the ad was banned in Japan because it insulted the Japanese style of greeting). Last but definitely not the least, the overall look of the commercial is controlled by visual graphics or ‘visual design’, which could be meaningful or simply abstract.

Take for instance the advert for any juice brand. Its name is designed in a certain way to communicate the USP of that brand. For instance “Real” means the juice is real and not artificial, or “Tropicana”, implying it contains fruits from the far tropics. Then if you look at the way the packaging is done, putting fresh fruits on the packet, with fresh leaves on which the dew drops have settled – all of this is to communicate natural purity and the freshness of the product. Now, the words which are referred to as the tagline, are also well designed, with “100%” implying the product has 100% juice (while in reality, it has only 19.7% orange juice)– the customer’s trust is won irrespective when he watches/reads the ad.

Design is born out of need

Can design skills be taught? Is it essential in our country, to be an NID (National Institute of Design) or an Art school pass-out, to be an impeccable designer? There might be diverging views on this subject. If Steve Jobs is known as an innovator, that’s because of his orientation towards design (iPod, iPad, iMac...) than just technology. But he never went to a school of product designing! Industry experts like Raj Kurup, founder and Creative Chairman of Creativeland Asia, mention, “It’s not that you have to go to an Art School or that you need to be an inventor. You can just be a techno-wiz or a fantastic thinker. Technical skills can be learnt, but design is something that completely comes from the school of hard knocks. Designing is born out of need!”

The way we establish a better understanding of design, we realise that it is all pervasive in advertising. But everything that cannot be ignored may not necessarily be worthy of discussing at length as well. So, what more does ‘design’ have to offer that would make it a subject worthy of serious discussion amongst arrays of the ad world?

Design influences?

“At every level of solution, design is imperative in the name of any action taken to solve a particular problem,” says Kurup. Look at every object of use around you. You needed something to write, so someone designed a pen, and then someone fine-tuned it to make it more aesthetic. That’s called ‘advanced design’. You wanted people to stop spitting on walls, you designed a concept of painting God’s picture on walls so that people would consider spitting on walls as sin. That’s an excellent paradigm of behavioural design. John C. Jay, Global Executive Director, Wieden & Kennedy tells 4Ps B&M, “I started as a designer, I went to a school that was very Swiss in design philosophy. But one great thing they taught me was how to think about a problem. I was never just allowed to do something that I felt like. I had to think through, articulate, do adequate research & then reach out for a solution. It’s all design.”

And if ‘Design’, the element, was that insignificant, it couldn’t have possibly influenced behaviour to this extent. It is a discipline worth celebrating!

Design is science too!

Around the world, design is understood from the point of view of bettering lives. Says Shubhoshekhar Bhattacharjee, CEO, Planman Motion Pictures, “Take for example Scandinavia, where some of the better designers come from. They aim to make everything more ergonomic – a chair or a keyboard is made more ergonomic, not just to make it look good, but to make it more convenient and to solve problems of all. In fact, design organisations in London account for 2.5% of UK’s GDP.” Design in the world has grown in the same way as the design of Apple’s first Macintosh PC has transformed to this day’s Apple iPad. Globally, design has become much sleeker, brighter, and definitely savvier. Design is not about getting high on a psychedelic drug. It really is serious science meant to solve a problem in the society. It is not just pure art or something meant to exercise for the sake of pleasure because it is aesthetic.

Design + India = ?

By now, it is evident that design is an integral part of advertising. But when it comes to our own country’s ad-world, many myths prevail. To say that design is purely adding an aesthetic value is a misnomer. Take the example of infrastructure. Compare any flyover made in the past century in India to one made in this decade – and you’ll understand how aesthetics are slowly catching up with mere ease of usage, which was the only factor considered previously. Yet, India is years behind Western economies, many which use flyovers as massive irrigation and water storing/harvesting units. Design in such economies starts from the very idea of making a flyover and figuring out how one will to circumvent the ecological imbalance a flyover could cause – and of course, making sure that the traffic goes correctly. And then, if the flyover looks beautiful, it’s a bonus. There is an untrue perception that the part of making an infrastructure unit is construction & engineering, but making it look good is design. Similarly, in advertising parlance, the logo is considered a part of design, but when it comes to an ad in its totality, it is termed ‘layout’. Purely a question of semantics, but if you look at it through design’s point of view, communication becomes a lot more interesting. In the same context, Jay of W&K adds, “I read a book called Quintessence – the quality of having ‘it’. It talks about the design of objects that are quintessential, things more than simply classic, that have the ‘it’. I’m sure India also has that certain quality (‘it’) in its culture. It might not necessarily be hi-design, but it has that sensibility to it that makes it so valuable emotionally as well as physically.”

For decades altogether, advertisers in India have overlooked the element of design in their debates & discussions, as Shoumitra Rai Choudhary, NCD, Madison Communication, elaborates, “Design has become a different category now. Even in award ceremonies, an agency’s design efforts would be awarded in a separate genre!” But isn’t the design team a part of the creative team? Truth is, design is by the day gaining greater foothold in the ad-world as Amitava Mitra, COO (North), Percept H, says, “In today’s cluttered world, design becomes a rather critical element. Most clients first look at whether an ad stands out or not, and the core design element is what makes it stand out”.

design – dead or divine?

On an emphatic note, the biggest problem with the ‘designers’ in India is that they have become behaviourally stereotyped. They have gone to design school, they believe in having a particular kind of haircut, wear a particular kind of dress, sit and talk in a particular way and have a particular lifestyle. And they think that that’s what makes them designers. True, some of the best designers in the world have not been celebrated at all. The inventors of the most complex machines are nothing but designers – the person who invented the engine of the car is a designer, the one who invented the first PC wallpaper is a designer, and even the person who invented a cellphone is a designer. But neither were they world-famous, nor did they flaunt the same hairstyle everyday of the year. What they shared in common is the fact that they understood where to strike the right balance between functionality and aesthetics. They started work on the design keeping both the elements in mind.

Functionality today has taken a backseat and the creative might be seen pushing for aesthetics. And that is a dangerous situation. Look at design as a science, and not just an aesthetic element, and design will get its due.