Ah purpose, the elusive holy grail of human existence. We should all have a purpose. A reason for getting out of bed in the morning that makes us jump for joy at the prospect of bringing some real value to the world around us.

Too much? Ok, we might not find a life-affirming purpose in every task we undertake at work, but it is important that we all find an objective to believe in when it comes to producing our best work. And this is especially true when, like us here at Pistachio, your work is immersed in the creative.

Like many fellow creative agencies, it is our job to bring your brand to life, hence why the title of this post – and the ceiling-high wall graphic in our office – is labelled, ‘create design with purpose’. So, this got me thinking, what does this mean when designing for our clients? How do we really design with purpose?

Well, luckily for me, I have a team of very experienced designers with which to discuss this very matter with, so let’s get started…

Rich, Pistachio Designer and part time high-level thinker…

“For me, strategic led design means creating a design, or concept, that’s influenced by strategy. You’ve looked at the challenges and assessed the need of the client or objective, next you need to look at how you can adapt what’s there and make it work harder – our job is to capture an essence, an emotion or an idea, bottle it and let it work its magic on the end-user.“

Chris, Pistachio Nottingham Creative Director and long-suffering Nottingham Forest fan…

“Designing with purpose to me means to ensure that you understand what that particular piece of design needs to do and who the target audience is. Then, we tailor the design to custom-fit the job it’s required to do.”

Emmy, Freelance Designer and full-time Egyptian Beauty-Queen…

“Us designers always love to be as creative as we can be, push boundaries and come up with creative that pops! But, if it doesn’t meet a brief, engage the target audience, or have any kind meaning, then it falls over – making it poor design. Great creative often comes in some of the simplest forms and is successful because it has purpose and meaning!”

Marie, Pistachio Director by day and super-hero mother and wife by night…

“As easy as it might be to design at whim, and not give much real thought as to the ‘purpose’ of a concept – this is not the way to ensure an impressive end-product. Creating design with purpose means to always keep the objective in mind when designing and to not lose sight of the clients over-arching goal, every design must have a purpose for it to be understood by the audience.”

Paul, Pistachio Director and recent detox-expert-extraordinaire…

“For me, creating design with purpose is something we have hung our business approach on, it is what we live and breathe on each and every project and we always ask the question when looking at each piece of creative…..does it meet the purpose of the requirement? How we go about that, how we understand that and how we achieve it – well, that’s our very own scientific and magical secret recipe – but ultimately; our aim is to deliver creative that works and it works because it has meaning, it resonates, or it packs a punch to the audience.”

Me, Pistachio Comms Manager and part-time smart arse…

“The designs we create at Pistachio always tell a story, whether that be the nostalgic story of a brands origin and ethos, or the poignant and important narrative of a particular marketing campaign – it might sound like I’m talking about words, but really it’s the same for any creative. For me, this is what ‘designing with purpose’ is all about, telling a story in the visual and instilling trust and positivity from a brand into the intended customer in the most effective way.”

So, what can we learn from Pistachio’s raison d’etre of ‘creating design with purpose’? Well, I suppose it’s that our purpose is to breathe life and energy into our clients brands, projects and campaigns and to make sure that our creative is always underpinned by effective strategy that gets right to the heart of our clients’ needs. To create design with purpose is to understand the target audience and thus produce powerful and compelling design that delivers on objectives and delivers the ROI that the client desires.

Still not sure what designing with purpose really means? Drop us a line today at either one of our Marlow or Nottingham based offices and we’d be happy to chat about how our purpose can positively impact on your brands objectives.