The Funnychord Design Philosophy

Laura PetersAdvice and Resources, Thoughts and Ideas

The Funnychord Design Philosophy has grown-up over time, but has always included a few important standards:

1. Content Rules

You can make anything beautiful, but does it make sense for the message?

Content means that your message drives the design, not the other way around. A good example of this is when you find something another company is doing and just replace the names and words with your own. It will look good, but your customers will see right through it.

Tailored suit and unique button2. Trust

Good design is pretty. Excellent design is honest.

Trust in design feels just like trust in other people. Flashy colors and graphics are perfect for some products, but maybe not for yours. What makes design excellent is if it feels honest and tailored just for that company. It’s like a tailored piece of clothing – it’s meant for you even though it uses elements (fabrics, buttons, stitching) that other clothes have too. And just like with a tailored piece of clothing, it carries your personality too.

3. Function

If it’s annoying to use, they won’t be using it for long.

Function goes beyond just creating buttons linking to your product page. You can also read debate after debate about how “orange is the best color for a button” or “the button has to be at the top of the page!” At this point, most people have heard the spoilers: It isn’t…and…they don’t. Here’s what to do instead: Focus on what the page is saying (content), what the message reveals about the product or company (trust), and how the user can solve their problem (function).

Our three standards wrap into a general philosophy: be yourself. We operate that way, we treat our clients as our friends, and we put this feeling into our designs. And you know what? It may not work for everyone. If we aren’t a good fit for our clients, we have the honesty to let them know and maybe help them find a different team. That’s reality.

The first consideration we make when starting a new project is if the client is looking for beautiful nonsense, or gorgeous reality. The beautiful nonsense clients typically want a quick, cheap fix to make their product “pretty,” but aren’t willing to put in the time to get to the core design and customer issues.

Gorgeous reality is true to the product, to the client’s mission, and to their customer’s delight. If you’re looking for solutions like that, we would love to get to know the real you.