If you were mugged…
I regularly teach a workshop at the School of Visual Concepts (SVC) on writing creative briefs. I always set up the workshop with what I believe is the fundamental tension within creative briefs: being comprehensive versus being concise. And while a big challenge in writing a creative brief is cramming a whole bunch of important information into a one-page document that should also be inspiring and…well, brief, this tension goes way beyond just creative briefs. This tension is at play in all communications, especially brand design.
This is the set-up I use: If you were mugged at the ATM, you might end up at the police precinct to give a report and offer your description of the villain. While it’s unlikely for (just) a mugging, a sketch artist might be brought in and the two of you might go back and forth with the charcoal pencil and sketch pad, endlessly adjusting details such as ear size, eyebrow height, lip shape, and on and on. If it was a slow news night, that sketch might even be shared with the public. And then what do you think would happen? Probably nothing. That’s because police sketches don’t work very well. Over the years, researchers from MIT, the University of Central Lancashire in England, and others have conducted studies that show police sketches work less than 10% of the time. Have a look at these police sketches and the actual criminal faces that informed them.
There’s not a ton of resemblance. And, just to take the Unabomber and Son of Sam as two very high profile cases, neither sketch aided in their capture at all despite press coverage that dwarfed the media buys of most brands.
Conversely, take a look at these political cartoons of George W. Bush and North Korea’s Kim Jong Il.
The proportions hardly look human, and yet we instantly recognize these individuals. And if you think this is just about having a face that everyone sees over and over, think again. The same truth is at work with those caricature artists depicting everyday citizens at waterfront piers, amusement parks, county fairs and birthday parties around the world. This isn’t about celebrity. This is about the way the brain works.
The human brain recognizes faces and other images by exaggerated characteristics, not finely tuned details. I think this also holds true in communications. Which is why there’s a lesson here for those concerned with marketing and brand design. The most recognizable brands are about big, bold strokes, not lots of details. They are concise, not comprehensive. It’s why the innovator’s use of white space is better than the stalwart’s gazillions of bullet points. Remember this when you’re having difficulty focusing your brand on just one or two exaggerated characteristics.
The inclination to be comprehensive is human. And so is the human brain’s inclination to ignore all those details. So it’s a simple formula for your brand: be bold, be concise, and be remembered. If you’re a criminal, you should hope police sketch artists keep focusing on all those finely tuned details no one will recognize.
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