A Rule of Hit-Making

Dan Wilson (member of the band Semisonic, writer of the hit “Closing Time,” and co-writer of Adele’s “Someone Like You”) is a great follow on Instagram; he drops wise nuggets. The one I want to elevate here is this:

“The more something looks like a rule of hit-making, the more likely it is that that rule is on the way out.”

As a designer, I interpret that this way: do not chase trends. For something to be a “trend,” it has been identified as a pattern and has already been repeated more than 3 times. This is something to be aware of, since graphic design is a language, and one must be able to speak it to be effective. But there’s nothing more embarrassing than a big company trying to hop on a trend-train to bump sales.

This is the cool thing about specificity in branding. Be a company that does something that’s true to itself. When folks try to copy it, it only points back to you (looking at everyone copying Chobani).

The only rule of hit-making is it requires taking a risk on something new and interesting.