Don't Design by Committee!

Rule #5: Avoid branding by committee or focus group.  This is true for most design projects.  It doesn’t matter if the project is a logo, and advertisement, a product or an infographic.  The number of people may be off though.  I find a small number of people can create a fantastic design, but it goes downhill quickly beyond that.

From 7 steps to create a killer brand, by Jim Price, posted on StockLogos.com

It’s good to be inclusive and seek opinions and ideas. But if you form a committee and put everything to a vote, you’re likely to end up with a least-common-denominator brand that’s bland, uninspired, and may look more like a hybrid camel-elephant than the thoroughbred you’d hoped for.

Found on the Brands of the World Facebook feed.

Comments

[obat stroke]

the brand is top factor for succesfull the businnes

[Rick Ladd]

I agree, especially with your statement "The number may be off though." I'm pretty sure the points for one and two people are frequently equal on the Y axis, if for no other reason than the need for sanity and error checking. For instance, the sentence preceding this assertion states, "It doesn't matter if the project is a logo, and (sic) advertisement, a product or an infographic." It took another pair of eyes (mine in this case) to recognize you'd replaced the indefinite article "an" with the conjunction "and"; most likely a typo. Sorry if I come off snarky; don't mean to be. It's just that your text made the point for me, though I'm not entirely certain I would equate copy writing and editing with design. At least, not without an argument . . . maybe even with myself.

Once again, I do agree with you. Patrick Lencioni wrote a book entitled "Death by Meeting" in which he argues most meetings accomplish little more than to waste time and piss people off. It seems death by committee is equally true when it comes to design.

[Buck Choate]

This is completely true! Design that is strategic and effective takes vision and one vision is hard to arrive at by a group of people all with different motivators, preferences, attitudes and perceptions. Design should be centered around the business or experiential problem that it's trying to solve.