Over the past weekend, I went to a few local shows. It’s interesting to see what separates the good bands from the great. The good typically have nailed the melodies and lyrics, but the execution suffers. The lead guitar is loud, the bass is loud, the drums are loud, the vocals are loud. Everything loud doesn’t make it better. Rather it’s the subtleties of volume and scaling back the supportive harmonies that makes an impact and great bands. Audiences can identify the emotion and story line of the music when the band uses loud and soft, complex and simple, instead of just maxing out every detail.

During the work week I see a similar situation. We frequently hear the request to make things bolder, make them pop, punch them up and make them stand out. At some point this approach breaks down, when everything gets that “special” treatment. I think the movie Incredibles puts it well with these lines shared between Helen and Dash:

Helen: Everyone’s special, Dash.
Dash: [muttering] Which is another way of saying no one is.

Designers know that you can’t make EVERYTHING bold or PoP! because you lose all sense of hierarchy and emphasis. What’s special gets washed out. KA+A has a saying that goes:

In a world were everyone is screaming for attention… yelling louder is not always the right solution.

As you develop your message, make sure that you emphasize what is important, and let the supporting details be exactly that – support. You have a small window to make an impression with your audience, so you want to make sure that at the very least they can identify what is most important. The details will have their day, but you can’t overwhelm your audience with them on the first shot. Share the details as you build a relationship with your customer, and continue to WOW them.