Cold Sight

Making a mountain out of a molehill

By Alireza Sadr-e Mohammadi

Graphic design is one of the main components of the marketing field throughout the world. Marketing is all about the design, execution, production, sales and support of any idea for a commodity or service. Graphic design can significantly influence the many phases of this cycle. Of course, it is not to say that the graphic designer has knowledge of every aspect in this cycle, neither is a graphic designer necessarily a marketing expert or even one of advertising. In other words, the specialized role of the graphic design is required in marketing but it’s not enough. Let’s elaborate on this subject in retrospect. The 1970’s mark the years of abundant supply of commodities and services in Iran; the role of marketers therefore had become more significant and effective. Almost no commodity was supplied without a comprehensive plan of production and support. Huge budgets were expensed in advertising and people or consumers were also significantly influenced by marketing and advertising programs.

This was apparent in product choice and services. The marketing specialists in Iran therefore went after increasing their level of knowledge, specialty and communication and participated in specialized international conventions on this field. The most significant indication of those eras was budget and planning. Compiling a strategic plan, choosing tactical marketing methods and the various fashions of its presentation are clearly visible in many of the marketing projects of that time. There were active and relatively successful communication companies and in some cases international advertising agencies in the world.

But in all of these agencies it was the graphic designer who merely played his role and was duly effective and functional. The Avant-garde Group’s innovations, creativities and thoughts of those tasteful designers helped the sales of products and services of many companies. Ironically, nowadays though advanced in many specialized fields but we are nowhere near the level of our predecessors after thirty years.

This has produced many hardships. Now, clients do not feel obliged to observe the principles of planning and budget. Agencies of all sizes have mushroomed. The graphic designer too, regards himself as the start and end point of a marketing project and worst of all, the service providers call themselves advertisers. Let’s be fair and similar to many specialized branches of graphic design, look at marketing as a professional and specialized science and see the position of idea and design in its right place and recognize and act upon it; but how?

If you, the respected reader also wonders how, it means that you don’t know either. The first step in every positive action is accepting that we do not know and the second step in this case is knowledge and recognition of current methods in successful world agencies and scientific studies in marketing. The work process in the standard advertising agency after accepting a brand campaign and compiling a plan and supplying the budget involves designing a great idea; an idea that changes the consumer-agency market, an innovative idea according to market characteristics and based on a target group that develops in the shape of a pivotal slogan and supporting titles. The graphic designer’s perception forms from this stage. The mind analyzes and expands on that idea until the pivotal slogan becomes an integrated and presentable plan. This means that we do not reach a great idea from design but after market research and choosing the target group based on demographic, environmental, political and social properties the great idea emerges. In all of the stages of choosing a medium we only consider the target group and while designing for every medium according to the model and format of a “great idea” and the standards of that medium, we transform the intended message into design. What’s considered as harmony in presentation of a message in a design for all media in a project does not mean that we apply the design of a magazine on a billboard or for mere beauty, change the design of a poster to that of a newspaper or like a coffin if the design is short in height pull it and cut it if tall. The characteristics of an environmental medium including the billboards, the body of public transportation vehicles, building walls, bus stations, etc. dictate the consideration of a few major points of which the most important one is the mobility of the target group and in some cases the mobility of the medium and target concurrently. For example, like advertising on bus exteriors and the movement of the viewers on the bus and in other buses. In this case the message should be the least number of words, design and color but with utmost contrast. Now after this relatively long preface, think a little of what we see in the streets of our city Tehran. Try to remember what you last saw on a billboard, bus or pedestrian overpass.

Was the design done based on that medium’s characteristics or did the same press design go on the billboard? Let’s be frank. The majority of existing designs in environmental media lack the necessary standards but they have merely placed the dead in the coffin. Who’s responsible for the phenomena? In the first place, the client is at fault because his lack of awareness on his responsibility and benefits prompts him to save most on the expenses of planning and budget and as far as design he does not do anything that would indicate his moral support of the designer and worst of all, he gives the least importance to the merit and value of an idea. Copying a design from one medium to another has now become an ordinary and usual practice. Although the advertiser apparently saves the cost of a design, he in fact is throwing away all of the expense of that medium. Clearly, the cost of a design is not comparable to that of a commercial as a medium but because of lack of correct recognition of the advantages the client undermines his future benefits and the positive results of a constructive advertisement. Secondly, some advertising agencies or freelance designers forebear their main prophecy of creating optimal results out of virtue for the client and turn into order executors for reason of getting their fees and of course, they won’t have a place in a specialized and competing market. Thirdly, there are some media officials who because of merely filling the advertising atmosphere and earning more income or reducing their fringe expenses accept any low quality design to present to the public through their medium. This group of media caretakers does not realize that by this approach they lower the value of the media and adversely affect drawing future advertisements and in earning short term income they loose their future profits. The fate of many short lived press and environmental media and even television networks have been affected by this reality that either the advertising officials lacked the necessary knowledge on the specialized merits of a design or a commercial

or just failed to pay enough attention. Now in completing what was said we are bound to put forth the question of what we have to do. In the broad scope, we have to improve the general public’s expectations towards what is presented through advertisements. Also, the active presence of scientifically based and specialized centers on marketing and its sub divisions and publication of professional books and reference journals can be effective. On the other hand, the expansion of international communications with the presence of advertising designs and TV commercials in regional and world contests and active presence of advertising experts in professional and specialized international societies will also greatly help. And the last word; what can each of us do alone? Without a doubt, more than anyone, with respect to ourselves, we should refrain from accepting anything imposing and increase our focused knowledge from being a sheer designer to a specialized one who possesses powerful tools for change in the consumer market. We can work as professional adverting agencies in Iran and in the region and refuse to mature in undue time. Let us grow logically and comprehensively. I do hope that with a dynamic mind and a more professional outlook in graphic design and marketing, we can finally claim that we have overcome a difficult task in the advertising market of our country.