Poetry in Design

This Saturday is Burns Night so I thought it would be good to focus this week’s Tutorial Tuesday on poetry and how we can utilise this in design.

I once created a conceptual brochure which used poetry to combine the inspiration behind a lighting design project with the finished project. Poetry possesses a quality which can transport an individual far away from their current surroundings by capturing the heart and emotions. This can be a great tool for communicating the benefits of a brand outside of corporate jargon. The consumer becomes excited by the concept and then wants to connect with, and be part of the brand by ultimately making a purchase. This tutorial will take you through the steps of how this can be achieved.

Step 1

First decide what you want to communicate. What is the product or service you want to promote? In my example I have used a disco mirror ball as the product I want to promote, and I want to communicate the benefits of purchasing one.

Step 2

Find a photo of the product, or search for an image to represent the service. If you have a product shot you can use this. There are a number of websites you can use to find stock images. I have listed three below:

www.istockphoto.com
www.shutterstock.com
www.gettyimages.co.uk

Step 3

What is it about the product or service that will make people want to buy it? What is the Unique Selling Point? What does the product do? Create a mindmap of words for these qualities. Try to focus on words with poetic qualities. These are more abstract words that incite emotion and feeling rather than use and functionality, and will therefore yield better results when we look for poetic quotes to bring into our design.

Step 4

Consider which words most represent the product, highlight them, and then search for quotes containing these words. I used Google and then it brings up a few different websites to search on. Otherwise you can go straight to one of the following sites:

www.brainyquote.com
www.goodreads.com
www.quotegarden.com
en.thinkexist.com

I searched Google for ‘quotes about light and mirrors’.

Tip: If no suitable quotes are found in your first search, try simplifying the search by only using only one key word.

Once you have found the quote you would like to use, choose a font which compliments the theme and then combine the text with the photo.