I love to KISS!
We are in February and my friends like to call it the “month of love”; I guess that’s why I feel like talking about KISS. My husband tries to use it all the time and lately I found myself applying KISS to most of my designs. You don’t know how to? It’s basic, just Keep It Simple S(weetheart)…naaaa, Keep It Simple Stupid!
As graphic designers we should apply this rule for many reasons, but the most important, is for our own mental health.
Let me show you why I love to KISS:
Communication
Graphic design is a form of creative communication and KISS is the key ingredient of communication. When you speak with fewer words, usually your point is more clearly addressed and when you design with fewer elements your message does not get lost by everything else going on.
The moment you have to explain your design to anyone, the whole purpose of creating it is lost.
Google is a great example of KISS. As one of the biggest companies, they simply have a logo above their search box on a blank white page; as simple as it gets.
Being Different
There is plenty of advertising clutter out there and if you’re trying to stand out amidst all the colors, flashy images and more, then you need to do something different, you need to KISS.
KISS Sells
When everyone’s trying to be a pioneer, they are overlooking the primary reason for their designs and creativity – to sell. If your product doesn’t sell, an award winning design will get you nowhere. You can have the coolest business cards and the craziest letterheads, but if they don’t match your company’s image, it means nothing.
Since all of this is completely true and despite their apparent simplicity, effective graphic design is not created randomly or by chance. When designs are simple they are well created – they last indefinitely.
“Any fool can make things complicated, but it takes a genius to make things simple” E.F. Schumacher
In this month and for the rest of the year, how will you KISS?
