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Article Good design can’t fix unclear thinking There is a familiar pattern in communications. Something isn’t working, and the first instinct is to redesign it. Article Good design can’t fix unclear thinking There is a familiar pattern in communications. Something isn’t working, and the first instinct is to redesign it. The website needs a refresh. The report needs to look better. The presentation feels dated. Perhaps the organization has outgrown its visual identity. Sometimes, of course, better design is exactly what is needed. But often, once you start asking a few questions, you realize the problem isn’t really the design. The organization itself isn’t quite clear on what it is trying to say. Who is this for? What do we want them to understand? What matters most? What are we actually asking them to do? Those questions can be harder to answer than “Can we make this look better?” But they are usually where the real communications challenge begins. Design needs something clear to work with This is particularly true for organizations working on complex issues. There can be years of experience, excellent research, multiple programs, important partnerships and genuinely interesting stories sitting behind a website or report. The challenge isn’t necessarily a lack of content. If anything, there is often too much of it. The job is to work out what deserves attention, what needs explaining, what can be simplified and what doesn’t need to be there at all. That requires some decisions about the audience, the message and the purpose of the communication before we start thinking about how it should look. This doesn’t make design less important. It makes it more useful. Good design can establish hierarchy, make complex information easier to understand, help people navigate content and create consistency across an organization’s communications. It can make a report more accessible, a website easier to use or a campaign much more compelling. But it needs something to work with. If the message is unclear, design can make the message more attractive without making it any clearer. If there are too many competing messages, it can organize them visually, but it can’t decide which one should matter most. And if the organization hasn’t worked out what it wants to be known for, a new visual identity can’t make that decision on its behalf. The same applies to branding A new visual identity can give an organization energy and consistency. It can help people recognize it and create a much stronger impression. But a logo can’t define an organization’s position. A color palette won’t resolve an unclear proposition. And a brand system, however well designed, can’t substitute for understanding what the organization stands for and how it wants to be perceived. This is where strategy, communications and design need to work together. We often see these treated as separate activities: strategy happens first, communications comes next, and design is brought in at the end to make everything look good. In reality, there is much more value in allowing them to inform each other. The strategy should give the creative work direction. The communications thinking should determine what needs to be said and to whom. And the design should help make that thinking visible, understandable and engaging. So what should happen before the design? Not necessarily another lengthy strategy exercise. Sometimes it is simply a good conversation about what the organization is trying to achieve and what its audiences need from it. What are we trying to say? Who needs to hear it? What do we want them to understand? What do we want them to do? And perhaps most importantly, what don’t we need to say? Once those decisions are clearer, the design becomes much easier. It might mean a new visual identity. It might mean a redesigned website or report. It might mean a new approach to presenting complex information. Or it might mean discovering that the existing design is perfectly good — and what needs work is the story underneath it. Good communications isn’t about choosing between strategy and design. The two work best when they are considered together, with each doing the job it is actually good at. Good design doesn’t replace clear thinking. It makes clear thinking visible. That, ultimately, is the kind of design worth investing in. in this article Design needs something clear to work with The same applies to branding So what should happen before the design? sHARE Linkedin Envelope Link rELATED More from the Knowledge Hub Swift Sports Organization: From impact to institutional readiness Publications Featured Before It Breaks Scope, deliverables and submission requirements for a short-term storytelling assignment. Publication Swift Sports Organization: From impact… Read More Good design can’t fix unclear thinking Articles Article Good design can’t fix unclear thinking There is a familiar pattern in communications. Something isn’t working, and the first… Read More Before It Breaks Featured, Publications Featured Before It Breaks Scope, deliverables and submission requirements for a short-term storytelling assignment. Featured Before It Breaks Scope, deliverables… Read More Insights, straight to your inbox Field notes, guides, and the occasional strong opinion on communications for purpose-driven work. No noise, just the useful part. Let’s talk about what you’re building A single campaign or a partner for the long haul, either way, the best place to start is a quick chat. Tell us what you’re working on, and we’ll be straight with you about how we can help. Start a conversation