By Sean D'Souza
Two might be company in life, but in communication you can go
all the way to three and still have a rollicking party. If you step
over to four however, it's quite likely that you've stepped into
the hara-kiri zone. Back up that truck a bit and learn how the power
of '3' has the ability to make your communication soar.
Let's Start With a Little Test
Here's a psychological test. Lay out 10 business cards in a row
and choose three that catch your attention instantly. Now don't
cheat. Do this before you continue reading this article and you'll
be quite amazed at the results.
So What Did You Find?
Isn't it strange that there seems to be
no real reason why you chose what you did? There doesn't even seem
to be a very clear pattern emerging.
Some of the cards have lots of information,
and some have very little. Some are colourful and others are not.
Yet something has drawn you to play the devil's advocate and reject
some of them outright. Could that something be a deep-rooted psychological
trigger embedded in your subconscious? And how can this trigger
make such a dramatic difference to your communication and marketing?
Aha! You've just run into the magic of THREE.
Understanding and applying it will throw a light into the dark world
of your presentations, brochures, web sites and yes, even email!
Before you put this into the "This is for my graphic designer"
basket, read further because it will help you recognize the psychological
background of how the brain understands these things and reacts
to them. It will also help you clean up your everyday communication
that your designer might never get involved with.
How the Brain Sees Things
The brain finds it relatively easy to
grasp threes -- elements, colours and fonts. Push that
marginally up to four and the brain gets confused about where to
look and what to do, and sends the eye scampering like a frisky
puppy on a sunny day.
So why does this happen? For that we might
have to go back a little to diaper country. As a child, everything
you did and learned seemed to be centered around three -- A,B,C;
1,2,3; Three blind mice, Three musketeers, Trinity, Three Stooges
and Huey, Louie and Dewey. (Quack! Quack! Quack!)
Then again, maybe these writers, animators
and wise men understood the ease with which we understand 'threes'
and reconstructed their work to fit this paradigm.
The Building Blocks of Visual Communication:
Elements, Fonts and Colours
Most visual communication can be reduced to these three features:elements,
fonts and colours. Understand how they work and you've given yourself
the added advantage of a mini design degree.
Just What are Elements?
I'm assuming you've gotten rid of those business cards in front
of you. So I've made up some of my own to illustrate how elements
work together. Elements are simply groups of objects that are grouped
together to form a common definable form. For instance, your eyes,
nose, mouth and ears are the main objects that form the element
called the face. Let's look at the cards below to understand this
even better.
If You Look at Card# 1, You Will Spot 3 Elements:
1) The name and the title of the person.
2) The logo, the logo font and the service
description.
3) The contact details form the third
element.
If You Look at Card# 2, You
Will Find Very Subtle Differences.
All I've done is moved the text and logo
just a tad bit around. However, even that tiny displacement has
ADDED a series of unwanted elements. Suddenly it appears there are
5 or even 6 elements.
1) The name.
2) The designation.
3) The logo design.
4) The logo font.
5) The service description.
6) The contact details.
Card# 3 Gets Even Harder to Focus On… Guess
why?
Card#3 is all over the place, as
it has not only violated the rule of elements, but also complicated
the visual layout with additional fonts. It has 5 fonts. Learning
how to manage fonts makes a big difference to your layout and the
overall look of your project.
Here a Font, There a Font, Everywhere a Font, Font
There are zillions of fonts out there
today, and it's hard to restrain yourself when you're putting together
a document. Try to use not more than 3 fonts in any communication.
The more fonts you have on a page, the harder it is to actually
read what you're saying. Be aware that a font that is in italics
visually ends up looking like another font altogether. It adds to
the elements and clutters it up considerably.
Also determine what the font is really
doing for your document. You might want to create some drama and
use contrasting fonts. For instance, fonts that are vertical used
with fonts that are wide contrast well.
I'd also recommend that you read The
Design book for Non-Designers, by Robin Williams. It's an inexpensive,
easy to read book that clearly explains the different facets of
fonts and their usage, plus how to use fonts to set the mood.
Seven colours are for Rainbows
Whether it's a tee-shirt, brochure, website
or business card, it's important to restrain yourself. Managing
your colour palette with just three colours can often provide the
feeling of as many as five or six colours, when moved around a bit.
Count shades of colours as two colours.
So, red and dark red are not just one colour but two definite shades
and hence, two definite colours. So, be clear about the colours
you are choosing. Say you choose something like red, black and green.
Move that round a bit and you can get brighter communication without
the confusion.
Why This is Important in Marketing and Business Communication
Most of us are always presenting or selling
to someone else. The proof of the pudding is always in the eating.
But the taste buds start to salivate only when it looks really YUM!
If you choose to ignore the psychology behind this, your 'dish'
might taste wonderful, but you may never get someone to stay long
enough to eat.
This also helps you keep a check on your
designers. Good designers instinctively get this right, but sometimes
they goof up big time. You can run this audit past your marketing
material and check for elements, fonts and colours.
Having said that, a competent designer
might have the innate ability to break rules. And if it works, that's
OK. Nothing is that sacred, but it helps to know the reasoning behind
it. Besides, you now have the ability to make that designer sweat
a bit.
Heeeeeeeeeere are some Examples!
McDonald's: The McLogo consists of two
elements-The name McDonald's and the Big Golden Arches. They use
just one font, and just two colours -- yellow and white (or black)
Coke: The Coca-Cola button that you see
in most advertising, consists of three elements: the button itself,
the bottle on the button and the Coke Logo. Even though it is a
full colour image, the colours are minimal and there are just one
or two fonts used.
Now that you can see the forest for the threes…:)
Go out and look at advertising. Revisit
your brochure. Audit your presentation. Streamline that website.
You will be appalled at how much clutter you had to start with,
and how easy it is to smarten it up quickly and efficiently.
Your marketing message will be much tighter
and more professional. But best of all, you'll know you're doing
something that's deeply embedded in the psychological psyche of
humans.
May the 'fours' be with the reckless Luke
Skywalkers of the universe (That's a joke, ok?)
You'll find it pays to stick to the threes!
©2001-2005 Psychotactics Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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