Designers are Visual Filters

in order to be innovative in the way we send messages, we need to spend time innovating how we receive messages.

“On an average day consumers are exposed to six thousand advertisements and, each year, to more than twenty-five thousand new products,” according to Scott M. Davis in his book Brand Asset Management.

We often refer to this onslaught of media and marketing as “the clutter” and we say that good design “cuts through” this clutter, making it easier for people to chose the stuff that they take into their own little system.

As a graphic designer, I (and you other designers out there) have the task of cutting through the clutter. If not, I/we are merely adding to the clutter. One way that this process makes sense to me is to compare it to a filter. Filters work by taking a mass of matter and removing parts that are undesirable. A water filter, for example takes water that is full of, well, clutter, and as the water passes through, the unwanted gunk is kept back sending out only the clean, usable water. One notable dimension of any filtration process is that more goes in the in than goes out the out.

Graphic designers work as a sort of visual filter. We, like everyone else out there, take in thousands and thousands of visual messages each day. But! Graphic designers and other visual communicators are also sending out messages, hopefully relevant ones; the kind that cut through and stand out.

When I begin a project (an identity design project, for example), I begin by learning all I can about the company, the consumer, the product and so on. I take note of what in the mass of clutter is relevant to the project—what colors, ideas and concepts, competition, symbols, icons, et cetera relate and in turn communicate. This is where the filtration system comes into play. In order for my design solution to be effective, I have to start with more visual stuff than I ultimately send out and the stuff that I send out must be absolutely relevant.

The quality of any design solution is dependent upon not only the amount of ‘visual stuff’ that the designer takes in, but the ability of that designer to see in a truly unique way and an ability to somehow store that information in an accessible and “searchable” manner. Basically, in order to be innovative in the way we designers send messages, we need to spend enough time innovating how we receive messages. Doing so will make us very effective visual filters.

At this point, I don’t plan on elaborating on how we can innovate our methods of receiving messages, but I will argue that the really good designers seem to have a knack at such a thing.

If you have any thoughts on how we can innovate our reception of visual messages, please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Thank you!