Emotional Design
Every designer wants to do things that are easily recognized, remembered and appreciated. To do so you have to improve your professional skills constantly and to know how to make design that awakes right emotions.
You see a lot of beautiful designs everywhere, but you remember only a few of them: the ones that create an instant emotional impact. They may be very original, amusing, funny and even sad – what matters the most is the fact that you feel something while looking at them. This means that these designs are good and successful.
Characteristics Of Emotional Design
Emotional design is:
– memorable: you remember it and recognize among the others;
– clear and understandable: it has to deliver simple message that can be understood one way only;
– good looking: it has to catch your attention and to look professional at the same time;
– enjoyable: you want to look at it, to see it again;
– personal: it is all about one sincere emotion.
How To Make Your Design Emotional
- Focus on a certain emotion
It can be possible to create logo, packaging, T-shirt or another design that is both happy and sad or sad and creepy, for example. But it is really hard and also it can confuse customer. Design usually has to deliver one clear message instead of as many messages as possible. This is why it is much easier to create an emotional design if you focus on one emotion only.
To do so, think about what do you want your customers to feel when they look at your design: happiness, sadness or maybe something more complex – curiosity, trust, etc. And then try to create design that will be able to awake this emotion.
The most common emotions are:
– happiness and sadness;
– anger and fear;
– excitement and tenderness.
- Choose colors wisely
It is known that colors are associated with certain emotions: red is aggressive and catches attention, blue looks dependable, yellow and orange are positive, pink is associated with youth and freshness and is often used for branding of children’s goods. The easiest way to awake a certain emotion in someone is to do so with the help of certain colors.
Most common colors cause these emotions:
- Know your customer
People of different age, religion, education and lifestyle react to things differently. You have to know your audience well if you want them to react to your design the way you expect them to. So don’t neglect preparation and do your research thoroughly. The more you know, the more successful your design can be.
Need to use some inspiration? Then check out these examples of emotional graphic design!
