Making brands more distinctive

Apologies in advance for getting all philosophical, but a couple of things have happened serendipitously over the past week or so that need noting. One was finding a quote that was quite interesting and the other was being asked to a pitch.

At Front Towers we probably spend far too much time discussing and arguing over what makes a good idea, what good creative and design is and how, when agreed, to apply these approaches. This was the case last week. I was fortunate to come across a quote that summed up what many of us thought as a neat short-hand to explain how we aspire to do things. It can be best explained by the quote I came across from French brainiac Antoine de Saint-Exupery:

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

At the same time that I was contemplating Antoine de Saint Bighead’s words an invitation to pitch arrived neatly on my desk from a client that had been on our watch-list for some time.

The pitch brief gave us the usual background information; objectives, brand guidelines and all that good stuff. We met the client and had further discussions and insights too but one thing in the brief stood out above all the other information we were given. It was a simple statement: “We want a big idea”.

Hello? Music to our ears. With Saint-Exupery ringing in our shell-likes we set to work.

The big idea naturally has to be stripped back, removed of all unnecessary adornment to sit there proud, powerful, er, big and therefore effective. Without the courage (bravery, honesty, balls, chutzpah – you choose) to discard the superfluous or to avoid tacking on little extra ideas “just in case” then both agencies and clients will produce less-effective creative.

This is a skill that needs honing by the designers, art-directors, copywriters and account managers of agencies and clients alike to produce really great work. And by great work we don’t mean art or philosophical treatise (Sorry Antoine) but work that helps our client brands simply sell more.

Joe

PS: We won the pitch.