We may be hitting *slight* fatigue in hearing how COVID has affected industries and lives. Some effects of the pandemic are still interesting to consider, especially as to how they might continue to impact future trends. Photography in design being no exception, post-pandemic designs are now starting to favor illustration a bit more. Lockdowns and mask mandates weren’t kind to on-site photographers, after all. And, how many times can we recycle the same stock photo imagery? Will illustration make a full blown comeback? Or will we see photography surge again as things “go back to normal?”

We touched on what a brand is in our January blog – how it’s so much more than a logo, how it communicates what your company’s all about, and how it’s a contract between you and your customers (and so much more. Check it out here). So this time around, I thought it’d be fun to talk about what a brand isn’t in a favorite format: Top 10 Myths.

There’s a psychology behind literally everything that engages people in the intersection of choice and decision. This month, we’re focusing on the psychology of menu design. Placement, formatting and ease of use count for major points – as does color and imagery – in creating a menu that generates maximum profits. A menu done well is a restaurant’s silent salesperson for hungry buyers.

Limited and special edition themed items play a really neat trick on us – FOMO! (Fear of Missing Out) FOMO has an embedded sense of urgency within it. As such, people become obsessed with an item that is “special,” “limited,” and an out-of-the-ordinary design element for a particular product. It’s a product marketing strategy that creates instantaneous brand awareness, a competitive edge, and FREE publicity through the #hashtag “look what I just bought” social media post from a loyal customer.