Same Concept, Different Styles
The concept describes the kind of feelings you want the piece to deliver to the viewer, and the style describes how you choose to make things look to deliver those feelings. For instance, you may decide that something should be pink to convey that it’s for a feminine audience. But it could also be purple. Of course, these are generalizations.
All Out Custom Cycles
Who’s Next Entertainment
Combining a concept and different styles can give you similar, but very different results. To show you what I mean, I’m going to be looking at a few old projects that wanted to use the concept of a stage with an audience to deliver their message.
One was styled as a gritty, rock-n-roll, biker-influenced look, and the other was styled as a black tie event with champagne and spotlights. Keep in mind that even though both styles are dramatically different from one another, the basic premise is common between the two. Making both of these styles look authentic requires evaluating both cultures for small details that are representative of the style as a whole. It is the small details that make the style authentic.
Describing those feelings is an important exercise to go through when determining the best way to style your website, packaging, or whatever else is being designed for you. For example, “classy” is a style, but classy could be many things. Refining that style to be “Classy yet affordable” narrows that style down some more. Now, it is up to the designer to execute that style authentically. A good designer is one who can adapt to new styles easily, and does not refuse to leave his or her comfort zone, in the interest of designing something that the client wants to see, and the brand demands — not just what the designer wants to do.
Click on the links in the top right corner of the article to view these projects.
