The Trouble With Being Good at Everything
By Matt Mason
I’ve always loved the English language. Its complexity, its versatility and the way a single word can have several meanings. I love how you can invent an entirely new word and people immediately understand what you mean.
And I love that our industry gives us the opportunity to play with it.
A few years ago, we were commissioned to create the brand for The Turing Building in Stratford, East London. Our campaign line was simply OPEN MINDS. Two words with three very different meanings.
Firstly, an invitation to businesses to open their minds to a different way of working. To move somewhere surrounded by 540 acres of open space, world-class culture, universities, innovation and everything East London has to offer.
Secondly, a description of the people we wanted to attract. Open minds. Thinkers, innovators and game changers who could help shape a new London East.
And thirdly, an intentional nod to Alan Turing himself, whose extraordinary contribution to science was overshadowed during his lifetime by the persecution he suffered because of his sexuality. A reminder of the importance of open-mindedness, acceptance and challenging prejudice.
Two words doing an awful lot of work.
That’s what I love about language. The ability to communicate something complex in the simplest possible way, to make people think, smile, question or look at something differently.
And just like visual design, words can be crafted, challenged, refined and occasionally reinvented.I’m guilty of inventing a few myself.
I have a habit of wandering off-topic when I’m talking, which I call ‘tangenting’. Apparently it’s not a real word, pointed out by a past client, but it bloody well should be.
Of course, our industry doesn’t always get it right. Take “ideation”, for example. A perfectly legitimate word that somehow manages to make the wonderfully creative business of coming up with ideas sound like a particularly dull corporate workshop.
Give me brainstorming any day.
But that’s the beauty of language. We can play with it, challenge it and occasionally make up our own rules.
Because the right words don’t just describe an idea. They can be the idea.