Designs are so much more effective when they can be felt. Those lasting impressions do not take more than the first few seconds of our interaction with the design. Advertising, branding, marketing, all are making use of the power of storytelling to find those emotional connections to engage their audience. Here I have listed some examples that have made use of powerful story telling and emotions in design.
Papyrus packaging
Papyrus greeting cards are beautifully interactive and an experience in itself. They have lend their branding to their products in such a way that holding a greeting card is nothing less than a celebration in itself. Their gold hummingbird seal ‘feels’ like the message is brought from far away sealed with love. It is an accent to the card itself. Also, every card has an enclosed note about hummingbirds, much like the brand story of Papyrus. The product could be anything and meant for any occasion, but this enclosed note never fails to add onto the sweetness of the message. Papyrus packaging with their signature seal and brand story note is a powerful strategy in connecting with the hearts of their audience.
Logo/ Word Design
I don’t know if this is an actual logo or a type based word design, but it caught my heart and attention. I could almost imagine the horizon, open sky and the
sun behind the bird. The feeling of happiness it bring about in me makes me feel the light and free spirited flight in the picture.
Design for social cause
I saw this illustration and couldn’t help but feel an urge to know more about its context. It has the beauty of simple line and color and it feels like she would start talking any moment. To my surprise the context also had to do with talking. This is Chineasy, a creative social cause to make chinese language easy to understand and learn.
I once read somewhere that it is easy to forget what one said or did, but how they made you feel is what sticks. Is that not true for design as well?
An emotional connection can be created by thinking of the personality of the product or brand and crafting a story to convey the message. A desired emotional response for a toy company could be ‘fun and safe’, while for a bakery could be ‘nostalgia’. In graphic design it causes a higher recall rate and in web design it leads to increased time spent on the website. Emotional design mostly makes use of simple graphics. This is not just for aesthetic purpose, but also to trigger a distraction free single and focused emotional response in the viewers.
The key take away point is that human beings have a rich emotional makeup and emotions are also a powerful learning tool for our mind. Weaving an emotional framework to send out a message has an increased potential of being received positively by its audience.
