In last class, we watched the Ted talk about clarity and mystery. Clarity designs are usually clear, concise, and easy to understand. They put all what they want to show straight on the ad. Mystery designs are usually indirect and abstract. They don’t go straight to the point. Instead they will leave the room for the audiences to think or imagine.
In the Ted talk, Chip kidd showed example of clarity and mystery. Coca cola is an well-unknown company. They already established their own identity to the audiences. Therefore in the diet coke packaging, they only showed part of the word diet coke. That created the mystery, but the audiences can still know it is from coca cola.
Later on, he showed us about how an ad agency ruined the mystery of the diet coke packaging. On the ad, the diet coke is placed on the background that showed the missing part of the word diet coke. They sent out the wrong massage on this ad. They broke the mystery that created for the packaging.
In order to be a good designer, we have to find the balance between clarity and mystery.We also need to know that clarity might ruin our work if we use it incorrectly. And the same for mystery.
