The stickiest, most well known brands have marks or logos that are simple from a design standpoint.
Think Nike’s “swoosh,” the “Golden Arches” of McDonalds, the bitten apple for Apple, or, even, the cross for the Christian faith tradition.
These marks and logos are memorable, at least partly, because their designs are clean, uncomplicated, and consistent.
Advancement efforts are more effective when we remember this lesson on simplicity.
- What is the message of our direct mail solicitation?
- What is the purpose of our annual fund?
- What are the key priorities of our comprehensive campaign?
- What are we asking event attendees to do?
- How do we get more people to respond to our outreach?
- What role do we want our volunteers to play?
The more simple, straight-forward, uncomplicated, focused, and consistent we are with our messages, our calls to action, our requests, and our invitations, the more successful we will be.
We can think of simple things as being primitive, or crude, or even, unsophisticated.
It turns out that when we communicate simple messages consistently, we do something much different – we create understanding and meaning.
