How to Design Engaging Media: Seven Simple Principles
By Mark Blasini
Copyright 2011 Mark Blasini
Smashwords Edition
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Table of Contents:
Preface: Seven Principles of Creative Media
Principle 1: Find Your Core Message
Principle 2: Use Details to Support Your Message
Principle 3: Resist the Urge to Add
Principle 4: Eliminate Details
Principle 5: Create Natural Conditions for Influence
Principle 6: Use Creative Asymmetry
Principle 7: Limited Resources is the Source of Creativity
Preface: Seven Principles of Creative Media
“It is the discipline to discard
what does not fit – to cut out what might have already cost days or
even years of effort – that distinguishes the truly exceptional
artist and marks the ideal piece of work, be it a symphony, a novel,
a painting, a company, or most important of all, a life.”
–
Jim Collins
The seven principles described in this e-book aren’t mine. I stole them from various sources --books, films, music, art -- and then tweaked them to make them presentable to you. I’m not proud of it, but in reality, you have to steal what you truly believe in. That’s how you actually influence and are influenced. Then, hopefully, something will grow from it.
The basic idea behind each of these principles is simplicity. Simplifying, keeping things simple, and embracing the simple. In my opinion, I think that what really ruins creative media design today, whether it’s photography, film, music, or graphic design, is that there is an excess of details, and a shortage of powerful, unique , engaging messages. Messages that actually inspire. Messages that make people imagine and fall in love with your work.
This is important. In a digital age where everyone is an artist, a designer, a filmmaker, a songwriter -- you don’t want people just to like your design. You want people to fall in love with it. That’s what distinguishes you. That’s what helps you create a legacy.
The following are seven principles of creative media design that are aimed to help you create media that people can fall in love with. Media that can make people imagine and wonder.
1. Find your core message. The word “core” is Latin for “heart.” You need to know what the heart of your design is. What is it about? Write it down in a single sentence. Once you have that core message, never tell your audience what that message is. It must be your best-kept secret.
2. Use details to support and emphasize your message. This is the principle of “show — don’t tell.” The details of your design should create a space for the audience to imagine what your core message is. Each detail works together to bring out that message in a dynamic form.
3. Resist the urge to add. At all cost, resist the urge to over-support your design with details. Do not add ANY details that do not reflect, support, or emphasize the core message. I know this principle sounds like common sense, but trust me — you will have the urge, and you will need to identify it.
4. Eliminate details that do not support your message. This principle might seem unnecessary itself (since it seems to just support #3), but it’s important not only to resist adding, but to provoke subtracting. Take whatever details that do support your message and thin them down to their core.
5. Create natural conditions for influence. People have a very natural way of seeing and doing things. They have a daily flow or routine, and they greatly resist changes or interruptions to this flow. As a designer, your goal is not to disrupt the flow, but to re-direct it. For whatever your media form is — music, film, photography, etc. — you need to know what people are used to experiencing, and how you can redirect that energy, using simple rules, to listen or look at what you have to say.
6. Use creative asymmetry. One natural thing people do is fill in details. If I were to say, “She skipped all the way to the park, singing, ‘Ring around the rosies,’” what image of the “she” would come to mind? We naturally assume and add our own details to something. Don’t resist that natural urge in people. Rather, you should fulfill it. Take out important details and your audience will fill in the rest.
7. Limited resources are the true source of creativity. Picasso is famous for saying, “If I don’t have red, I use blue.” Don’t fret that you don’t have the resources to do something. True creativity comes from using what you do have to create something that no one else has ever done before. Stop thinking, “How can I get more to do more?” and start thinking, “How can I use less to do less?” You’re a human. You already do more. As an artist, you must do less.