why you just got overlooked

Late last year, a giant in the branding & design industry passed on. Don Watt has been credited with designing the Canadian flag, creating the highly recognizable Home Depot logo, and shaking up the food industry by developing a ‘branded’ look to private label with the President’s Choice brand (among many, many, many other accomplishments).

He was also well known for creating the hallmark of package design innovation, photo-symbolism. His idea was to “make the outer package express the promise of goods inside”.

Nowadays, in the food industry, this is commonplace. Can you imagine buying cookies without a picture of decadent chocolate chips on the package? Can you imagine buying coffee without a steaming cup on the package? Thanks to Don, we don’t have to imagine what it might taste like, the package tells us.

Why don’t businesses get this same concept? Why do some of the best businesses forget about making their outer communications express the promise of goods inside their company? Bad web design, wordy and convoluted copy, generic blog templates, shoddy sales material, and inability to succinctly communicate what they do to others.

If you forget about your outer package you might just get passed up for another that looks more appealing.