Thursday 22 March 2012

What advertising can learn from a teapot

Bauhaus is an artistic movement from 1920's Germany.
It combined art and function- redesigning everything it could.
The most famous examples of this are Bauhaus buildings: big windows, new materials and open plan designs- this was the beginning of modern architecture.
But the Bauhaus movement also effected more everyday items.
Like teapots.
The designers didn't look at what teapots already existed and how they could adapt them.
They started again- designing every aspect from scratch.
They made the design cleaner, more practical and possible to mass produce.
Why did a teapot need to be that shape?
Why does it need to be made out of china?
The result looked nothing like a normal teapot.
It was seen as revolutionary and modern at the time, chances are you have something similar in your cupboard today- so it was successful.

It is this style thinking that Steve Jobs used.
He didn't seek to reproduce a mobile phone and improve upon it. He saw it as something completely different.
He thought about what it was capable of.
Does there need to be a key pad? Is aluminium better than plastic?
He started from scratch, looking at every part critically.
It is this thinking that creates a great advert.
Analyse the competition, use the same tools as they do, improve on their strategy and you may will probably come up with an OK advert. It might even be good.
But to be great, you have to forget about everything else, you have to empty your mind of all norms.
Don't improve something, but design something fresh.

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