What is the purpose of design? Wrong question!

The design itself is not the purpose. Rather, the real purpose lies with your goals. What you are trying to achieve? What do you need to communicate to achieve that? How you are going to get people to listen?

I was at a great networking event (Networking In with Pete and Sarah Mols) where Matt Hughes from ‘King of Video’ talked to us about creating a YouTube channel. I had no intention of starting a YouTube channel yet he got me thinking it was entirely possible and might even be good for business. That was the power of his talk, his perspective and his delivery.

The main takeaways for me were based on purpose. What is the purpose of your YouTube channel beyond getting subscribers? That purpose will define how many and what type of subscribers you need to achieve your goal. In fact, the purpose is not about the number of subscribers, it is all about the goal itself.

And the same goes for design. What is the purpose of design? Well, that depends on the goal.

Matt talked about making sure the purpose is at the centre of your strategy for your YouTube Channel and demonstrated that it will be different for different people. Some may reach their goal with 1,000 subscribers and some with 150,000 subscribers. In fact, it is not about the number of subscribers, it is about the goal itself.

Examples to further explain

In my opinion, people that share 3 logo designs on Linkedin and ask which is better, with no context and without stating the goal, are missing a trick. The best option is the one that will move the needle towards the goal – or reach that goal in one swoop if possible. So we can give an opinion but it might not help reach the goal.

We can make an awesome design but it might not appeal to the right audience. Recently, I was asked to create a design that looks similar to a previous leaflet. I did just that. They didn’t like it. I could have spent hours creating more versions and still missed the mark. Instead, I asked some searching questions and I got a better brief. They loved the next round of visuals.

The purpose matters. Design has no purpose without a good brief and goal for the project.

The brief might be:

• Premium design to attract a certain audience;
• Appeal to people online and not just in person;
• Illustrative storytelling whilst appealing to an academic audience;
• Communicate joy and freedom whilst showing the high value of the product.

What is the purpose of design? That is the wrong question. The question should be what is the purpose of the project? Then, you can let the design do its job to help reach that goal.

The design options are endless. Have some fun finding the right look for your project.

Get in touch to talk about the purpose of your project and we can have fun exploring designs to help reach your goal.