Disruption In Design

Being different is a vital part of the advertising world.  No one wants to see something that has already been done, it’s not going to sell the product.  Disruption is a tool for change, an agent of growth.  Disruption is not destructive, it is actually creative.

In some areas of advertising there is a lot of parity, everyone is doing the same thing.  A good example of this is car advertisement.  Having a car ad that doesn’t show the car at all would be disruptive as it goes against what everyone else is doing.  Another good example is the famous Honda domino advert. 

What most car ads had done was show the car driving along some winding road probably in the country side.  Yet Honda went out to do something different.  They do in the end show the car but only for a small proportion of the ad.  And they created something that was so different from what any other car ad was doing at the time.  This is disruptive advertising.

These disruptive techniques can also be used in other areas of design and art to improve your work.  Modern art was very different to what was being produced by others at the time so even if you liked or disliked it, it was getting talked about and getting noticed.  Using disruptive thinking in your design will get your work noticed and talked about.

Disruption = success

Big vision thinking is also a key part of advertising, think of that big idea that will really sell the product.  Don’t be content to still with the small idea because it’s easier don’t be content to do what everyone else is doing because it is easier to think about. 

Disruptive thinking has to start form the product.  There’s no point trying to create a disruptive piece of advertising if the product you are trying to adverts is the same as everything else out there.  It has to be a disruptive product.  A good example of this is the original iPod commercials.  The iPods where disruptive products when they first came out and with that they created an advert that was both creative and different to everything else.  

Disruptive work gets talked about so you should always strive for originality.  Always ask questions.  Why should a logo for this type of company always have a logo like this?  Why can’t it be totally different?  The key to advertising and design is not to play it safe.