Let’s be frank…designers are great. They wear the coolest clothes, carry the coolest gadgets, and fill their next generation iPods with only the coolest of tunes. Granted, their spelling could use some work – but I’m willing to forgive that as long as they keep me on the invitation list to their exclusive parties.
That said, when dealing with designers on certain email projects, I have been reminded of the old saying:
To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Or, to put it in design terms:
To a designer with Photoshop, everything looks like a canvas to be filled.
The truth with email design, however, is that less is often more. Consider an email alert. Email alerts are sent for a variety of reasons, including:
- An emergency requiring immediate action or response
- A timely correction to information contained in a previous email or other communication
- A notice to subscribers of a service issue or disruption
- A breaking news story
In each of these situations, there is a single, primary purpose for the message — to communicate a time-sensitive piece of information quickly and clearly to subscribers. In situations like this, the best designs are those that are nearly invisible to the recipient. There’s a logo to confirm the message source, and a font selection that ensures maximum legibility — there might even be an executive signature to punctuate the message with a sense of its importance.
If you’re blessed with an intuitive designer, they may instinctively understand the difference in design needs between an email alert and a promotional email. If not, it would be wise to work with your design team to develop a simple email template to have on hand in case you’re faced with a situation warranting an email alert. Less can be more—but only if you’re as conscious in the design or your email alerts as you are with your email promotions.
As the late, great designer Charles Earns said, “Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.” Whether you’re an email designer, developer or consultant, the more you can help define the need to be served, the better your design (or lack thereof) will ultimately be.
