‘Iconic design is connected with people’

The role of design is to make peoples’ lives easier and better, but what makes a design iconic among thousands of new designs released every year is an emotional connection with people, according to Bruce Duckworth, co-founder of brand design agency Turner Duckworth based in San Francisco and London.

“Iconic design is emotional,” said Duckworth at the lecture on advertisement at the Herald Design Forum on Friday in Seoul.

Duckworth and his design team led several iconic brand and packaging designs of big names such as Coca-Cola, Levi Strauss & Co and Amazon.com.

Duckworth shared some key points in creating iconic designs that are remembered, used and talked about by many.

“You have to find the truth about the product, be clear about the product and add a little touch of magic that connects to people on an emotional level,” Duckworth explained.

When his team changed the typography of the “sad-looking” underline of the former Amazon.com logo into an arrow that goes up like a smile, it made such a huge difference to the image of the company that even its CEO said, “Anyone who doesn’t like this logo doesn’t like puppies.”

“The difference is what makes good design because it is an emotional response,” Duckworth noted.

Taking the Chanel logo as an example, Duckworth stressed the power of logos as the value of a handbag goes up with the logo on it.

Duckworth and his team revamped some of the most iconic logos such as that of Levi Strauss & Co. and recently the heavy metal rock band Metallica.

With the Metallica project, he focused on “returning to their roots,’ using the original Metallica logo as a model and making it stronger and more dramatic.

“Iconic design is unmistakable. A good example is the white cable of the iPod. Steve Jobs and his design team thought the white cable is the important brand identity,” said Duckworth.

In line with his emphasis on emotion, Duckworth stressed that design should look interesting and joyful and that flexibility is key to entertaining customers.

“‘I’m feeling lucky’ on Google’s search website gives you the feeling that there is a human behind the technology,” said Duckworth.

Just as the Google website made using a search engine easier for people, Duckworth said it’s the role of the designers to change people’s lives for the better and make the world more beautiful, joyful and inspiring.

Quoting Elvis Presley’s words “Do something worth remembering,” Duckworth said, “This is our responsibility as designers to make this happen.”

By Lee Woo-young (wylee@heraldcorp.com)