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Nowadays, it is so easy to spot great copywriting with equally captivating graphic design. Those materials are so abundant. Just scroll down your Instagram, and only...only one scroll away you'll meet the first Instagram ad. Scroll down for a minute, you'll find four or five more (depending on how frequently you open this app). 

It is as if we are being indulged by visual beauty combined with eye-catching words. From the words which directly invite us to shop on an e-commerce site to proverbs with beautiful graphics or illustrations as its background… It’s no wonder that our fingertips immediately tap the like button.

All of that makes us think about how powerful visuals can be when combined with writing (both copywriting and descriptive/explanatory writing).

In what we've been through so far, visuals and writing are two things that can never replace each other. They complement each other. The brand guideline will not be understood if it only contains visuals;  it needs an easy-to-understand explanation of the concept or a user manual. Right?

Truly, a combination of visuals and writing is a “perfect marriage”.

The ultimate example of the 'marriage' between visuals and writing, in our opinion, is war propaganda. Indonesia itself has an interesting example of propaganda posters, where at that time Soekarno, the future first president, acted as the initiator (imagine if Soekarno was alive today, he might have become a great art director!). It can be seen from the propaganda poster (created in 1945) how the creators succeeded in capturing the essence of the message they had wanted to convey holistically.

However, from the example above, we also have to ask ourselves again: how do we, the ones behind it all, use our respective skills since what we create can be used for both positive and negative purposes?

But one thing for sure, whatever the purpose is, this marriage will last forever and evolve from time to time. 

A happy marriage.

When we see problems, many of us need to get answers in complex processes. Somehow, unconsciously we prefer that method; to deliver a solution in complicated ways. Some might have excuses such as, "because everything needs to be considered meticulously." Because there are many factors out there. Because there are so many possibilities to be included in the variables.

This situation can drive us to the point where we forget the essential part of solving the problem. The problem itself. We fail to see the urgency; we end up circling our own complex thoughts. We feel responsible to answer every question raised from the problem, but fail to find the most important question.

And if you think I am circling around by repeating similar things over and over again... Well, that's how it feels when we fail to address the essentials.

Is it not okay to have complex thinking?

The answer is yes, it is okay. But it can become a hindrance when we turn the complexity into an unnecessarily complicated process.

Complexity is what our brand strategists face every time we start to define the identity concept of a brand. Creating brand identity, of course, is not the same as solving a problem but quite similar. We have a set of questions to be answered in order to find the right brand voices and senses that will form a solid identity.

"The thing is...the process is not about ignoring your complex thoughts. It's about mapping possibilities that come into your brain, then putting those into the right channels," one of our brand strategists said, "I think complexity and --to some extent-- complicatedness is necessary for the process in finding brand identity concepts. Those two allow us to brainstorm wildly, to analogize, to connect one thing to another.

"Even though it is good to see things from bird-eye-view, we have to remember why we are here. To help our client create a brand that will grow. Therefore, those wild brainstorming and ideas need to be put in a context which relates to the brand."

Let them communicate

A good answer is an answer understood easily by its audience. If we were throwing questions as a scientist in a peer-to-peer review, we expected to hear the answer in some complicated, technical terms. But in daily life, people want simplicity. They want simple answers to their daily problems. They want something that they can relate to.

Simplifying things is a must for our audience. Here comes the hardest point. How do we simplify brand identity into relatable value? It lays on how we see the communication between the brand and its audience. Let's see from their perspective as if they were human beings.

If you were the audience:

Do you want to get through a complicated process to get your problem solved? Do you want to listen to your complete rambling with a frown on your face?

If you were the brand:

Do you want to get stuck with people that don't align with you? Do you want to give something that people do not like having?

By knowing what the brand's aims are in communication with their audience and vice versa, we will have a better comprehensive, holistic understanding of the identity concepts.

We might get overwhelmed a lil' bit (or a lot?) by the fact there are many options to explore for creating brand identity concepts. We might get lost in our own thoughts ("Definitely," said our brand strategist). But the highlight is: try to simplify our thoughts by learning to befriend with its complicatedness.