14 Jul Why less is more.
A great design sends a clear message as to what your business is or what it does. Sometimes entrepreneurs get a little too excited about all they have to offer, and try to cram it all in to one design. Unfortunately, this can cause clutter and confusion to potential customers. In design, less is always more and here’s why:
Less is easier to understand.
The less complicated your design, the more people will have an immediate response and understanding of it. For example, your logo can use negative space and letterforms to create clear messages that speak to every kind of person, culture, and mindset because it is universally understood.
Simplicity will always be in style.
Notice how those drastic drop shadows and gradients were ever so popular about 10 years ago? Well now, it is a dead giveaway that your design is outdated. Simple and minimalistic designs retain their appeal throughout decades. I’ll use the ever famous Nike logo as an example here. It is simple, modern-looking logo mark and has been around since 1971.
Clutter hides your call to action.
If you are designing an ad, poster, or even a website with a million different design elements, body copy, photographs, etc. people will miss your message, and they will glance by the design not knowing what they were supposed to get from it. A called out message with plenty of negative space will frame your message and prompt people to see it.
Less complexity equals less expenses.
Generally, the more design elements you want to throw into one concept, the more money it is going to cost you. If you are hiring an illustrator, they will charge more. If you are hiring a web designer, every section, body of text, animated feature, functionality etc. will take more type to develop which means more money in labor. If your logo has multiple colors and shapes, it is harder to reproduce with different materials, and every color you add, the price will increase dramatically.
Think about some of your favorite businesses, or logos, do they have simple designs?