The Guy in the Blue Rose Tuxedo Smoking Jacket

Remember that guy in college that came to the formal in an incredible blue rose tuxedo smoking jacket? I do as it’s still in my closet. The jacket presenting the guy that would buck-shot his grades and extend his college career for a solid seven year stretch?

One thing is for sure about that jacket. It made an impact and twenty years later they still want to know where I got it.

Design for me has lost a great deal of this kind of impact as like tuxedos, everyone has been showing up to the party in the same old standard.

To fully appreciate this comment, you have to go back about twenty-five years or so when we still had rotary phones.

Back then there was no world wide web. And in my opinion, the web has become the root of this issue. It’s made it too fast and easy to pull mediocre images from stock photo sites that we’re all using and recycling. There was a time not so long ago when a designer actually designed around the problem. And that problem might lend itself to a custom illustration that no one else in the world would have.

Oh but wait up man. That would mean you would have to spend more than eight hours designing my collateral and I need it tomorrow. I can’t have you spending a month on my concept for some custom illustration that would actually make an impact. You know, that impact of that guy? That guy you knew in college?

Custom illustration is, believe it or not, still around. And in this world that has become so hard to market in, I highly suggest considering this option when communicating your product or service. It makes that impact. The impact you’ll need to stay in someone’s brain file.

And these days, you’ll need all the impact you can get.