Minimalist Advertising or Marketing

It’s easier to communicate in a straightforward approach when advertising or marketing.

When is comes to advertising or marketing in an over populated market Minimalism has a strong impact, when a message is kept simple and straight forward it becomes easier for consumers or the mass target audience to interpret, understand and remember with a remarkable attitude towards the product or services. More often customers don't have time to wait read and make sense of a long complicate ad they are likely to have a maximum of 10 to 20 seconds to look at the ad, so creating visual communication that will leave an interest in a customer's intellect requires minimal yet effective design. Paring a single word, logo, image or bright hue with a catchy slogan - creates memorable work that is both eye popping and intriguing.

The same thing happens in packaging the Design firm Antrepo recently undertook an experiment that they called a “minimalist effect in a maximalist market”: They took the existing packaging designs (left) for a number of products, including Pringles, Nutella, and Red Bull, removed some of the clutter and gratuitous graphics (center), and then, for maximally minimal impact, stripped away even more to create a “more simple variation” (right). Sometimes the center picture looks better than the ultra-stripped down design on the right, but in almost every case both beat the cluttered, noisy packaging that actually exists. By Robert Quigley

Social network sites also play a substantial role in the effectiveness of this manner of advertising. An eye catching minimal design creates traffic on social net works, people online are there for t heir on reasons they’ll either be chatting or reading something and for an ad to catch their attention it must first grab their attention and draw some interest in wanting to have a look at it so with minimal elements used the ad is oblige to have an impact on sales of the product or services.

Nearly 1.4 million Liked Apple Inc.’s Facebook page in February, according to the ChannelAdvisor Facebook Commerce Index. That’s a 56% jump from January, which is particularly impressive because the retailer doesn’t use the social network to promote its new products or to interact with consumers.

The Apple Facebook page is mostly untouched. It features a single image of the Apple logo and no content-based  posts to its wall.

“Apple is so popular it doesn’t even have to engage consumers to be Liked,” Channel Advisor Corp. notes in its report. Channel Advisor helps retailers sell through online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay as well as comparison shopping sites. Published: Jan 26, 2011 References: kfc and adsoftheworld

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/kfc-ad

http://www.a2591.com/2010/12/minimalist-effect-in-maximalist-market.html

Church Branding

I feel that Churches should visually be represented in a unique way as compared to the way they universally represented.

Branding for Churches has never been important, as effective as it can be churches are still not branded, I feel that as a result of the age we living in (a media driven age) churches should be branded. Normally churches use the basic Christian symbols as logos namely the Cross, Bible, Dove, Star, Angel, Chalice, Christogram, Fish (Ichthus), Crown of thorns etc, this could be because of the common beliefs that churches share because each of this symbols can be traced in the bible and linked to a story that narrates a certain significant historical event of the Christian religion yet the weight they place upon the beliefs or their values varies, every church edifies the Christians to seek the kingdom of God,  the truth and love but each of the would place greater emphasis on one over the other.

With that being said a church brand is so much more than just a logo, it’s the language that is used, the visual look and feel around logo. A logo should portray the key things about what the organization wants the audience to be recognized for, yet this doesn't mean all churches must use the symbols as they are, there should be concepts behind the icon and it should fluctuate from other churches’ because of what the church mainly stands for or focuses on. With our key values depicted on a logo we are really bringing forth what really makes us tick as a congregation.

I say church branding should be taken more important, even if the Christian symbols are used they should be used more creatively with original concepts. That way one can be able articulate the value of their church to non-members in ways that will make sense to them, for them to also see your church worth a while. 

Minimalism in Design

Both as a Trend and as Movement Minimalism has ascertained its influential prompt in the Design Industry.

Minimalism in various forms of Art and Design is where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features; this is done through using a limited or minimal amount of essentials to a maximum effect.

In all cases, Minimalism is eliminating elements that are considered to be unnecessary and allow the fundamental features to function in a weighed down fashion. It is the tendency to reduce to essentials. It also applies to groups or individuals practicing asceticism and the reduction of physical possessions and needs to a minimum; it also aims to simplify everything to a minimum. (Ad Reinhardt – November the 29^th 2009)

Trend: Tendency in a particular field where a group of people are focused on a common ideology. The main principle of designing will be based on minimal concepts.

Movement: This is the gradual change in technique, the change that the Movement goes through as a result of the latest technology. As we are introduced to more digital equipment design has also moved from focusing on hard copy to dominating in the digital world.

The survival of this movement or trend results from its most indispensable principles.

-          Grids

-          Typography

-          Space

-          Color

-          Basic Design Elements

This Principles are more fundamental in the Design field in general, when designing the above elements become your most basic tools of coming up with a high-quality design.

Grids - in graphic design is a way of organizing content on a page, using any combination of margins, guides, rows and columns to create alignment and unity.
Typography- the practical and artistic arrangement of type, the way in which type is laid out on a page to suit achieve the desired visual effect and best convey the meaning

Legibility	Readability
A measure of how easy it is to distinguish one letter from another in a given typeface. Legibility describes the design of a typeface. How legible a typeface is designed to be depends on its purpose. Legible typefaces usually have larger closed or open inner spaces (counters). They generally have a larger x-height, though not too large.	How easy words, phrases, and blocks of text can be read. Readability describes how a typeface is used on the page. Good typography (more readable) encourages a desire to read the copy and reduces the effort required to read and comprehend the type. The reader should not even notice the type. She should simply understand the words.

 Steven Bradley 

On May 24, 2010                                                                                                                                                                                   Archived in Web Design

Space – separation or connection of elements in a design, it creates groupings of elements, emphasis and hierarchy and improves readability and legibility in a design. Wider spaces separate elements from each other and narrower spaces connect elements to reveal relationships between them. 
Color- the response of the eye to differing wavelength of radiation within the visible spectrum.
Basic Design elements- Point: an element with a position but without an extension.
                                                Line: an element characterized by the length in direction.

Shape: an element defined by its perimeter or the shape and structure of a dimension within a    given composition.

Color: the response of the eye to differing wavelength of radiation within the visible spectrum.

This is the only trend that utilizes the most basic elements and principles, namely shape, line, space etc which then materializes to designers the affiliation it has with the elements and principles of design, the affiliation best illustrate that the trend only consist of elements and principles of design.