Designing for Emotion: Chapter 1

The next assignment for my PR Pubs class this week was to read chapter 1 of Designing for Emotion. This assignment is something different from what we usually do here in Pubs, and while I am not the biggest book worm in the room, I’m not going to lie, I actually enjoyed it!

What is one thing in Chapter 1 that you agree with? 

On the second page of Chapter 1, there is a paragraph devoted to to a few present day parallels. Specifically, “In a quest for higher crop yields and lower production costs, farms have become headless corporations pitting profits against human welfare. But local farmers are finding new markers as consumers search for food proceeds by people for people.” This statement is so true it’s ridiculous. We LOVE supporting local people and home grown foods, gaining the “opportunity to live with an object that has a story.” I feel like from now on when I’m designing, I’m not going to rush and I’m not going to make myself a corporation “building fast and cheap” (could you even imagine the train wreck that would be Courtney Corporation??!) This part of Chapter 1 has inspired me to always add my unique touch in my work, because in the end, that’s what we truly want to see and truly care to see.

 

What is one thing in Chapter 1 that you disagree with?

Truthfully, I enjoyed all of Chapter 1 and agreed with everything… for the most part. The one thing I slightly disagree with, (emphasis on slightly because it really is so small in the big picture) is on page 11 under the section titled “Emotion and Memory.” While of course I agree emotional experiences make a profound imprint on our longterm memory (hello my entire business card and letter head?!) there is something I can disagree with. Sometimes when people have extremely bad experiences, they can block that memory out entirely. Yes I know John Medina proved his statement right in his book and he’s very credible, I just feel like if someone sees and image that could potentially remind them of an experience they had in life, they could have the capability to feel nothing because they’ve locked that memory away. I know this is a legit thing and it typically happens to people with extremely tragic events in life (ex: sexual abuse), where they’re just able to lock it away and actually forget the memory entirely, or at least have gaps. Okay back to PR Pubs though: I think it’s important to always consider your audience and consider the message before you print it. Sometimes a message might be a little too sensitive to a topic and it’s important to always be aware of that. Again, such a small, small thing to disagree with and I’m all about appealing to emotion, I will just be cautious of my audience every time I am designing!