The Layout #1
A layout of design highlights and thoughts.
Good day everyone, My name is Emmanuel and this is The Layout. This is the first edition and will be a weekly summary of design insights, tips etc. Thank you very much for reading this and please subscribe if you haven’t done so.
Pricing Tricks.
a I am currently reading a book called “Priceless: The Myth Of Fair Value (and How to take advantage of it)” by William Poundstone. It highlights the pricing techniques that modern business use which take advantage of human thinking heuristics and biases. There was a key section that struck me. Let’s call it the Anchor King. Every luxury company has an Anchor King i.e. a product that is very expensive and luxurious e.g. $50,000 Handbag, a $500,000 watch etc. These items act as “Anchor Kings” for the company which are used to create anchor points in consumers so that they can buy the items they really want to sell to the public. Think of it like this, I walk into a Prada store and I see a $30,000 handbag on a special shelf, not to be left undone, I walk around the clothing section and I see a $150 T-shirt. I can’t clearly afford the handbag but I buy the T-shirt because the handbag acts like an “Anchor King” which makes me believe that any item I get below that price is actually a good deal and a bargain. Try and evaluate the brand you shop with and see if they implement these techniques. The book overall is a great read.
Resource Break
Here are some cool resources for the week
Microsoft Powertoys: This software package basically supercharges your design workflow to another level with features like Colour Picker, Fancy Zones, Screen Ruler etc. It is only available on Windows (Duh!). You can download and install it from this link. Enjoy!
Randoma11y.com: This website gives you access to a bunch of colour codes with varying contrasts and different options to randomize and get the right colour pattern for your project. You can check it out here
Ado about art.
This shouldn’t be controversial but there is still a huge interest in artworks from the previous centuries compared to this century in terms of value and viewership. My proposition is that art nowadays is well directionless i.e. lacking a sense of purpose and direction. Think about it, most of the great works we admire today were actually commissioned by a King, Queen, etc. who hired artists to create a visual reference for generations to come. Nowadays, there has been a lack of such patronage that artists had to forge a path for themselves. It is not all bad but if you take a look at the art produced in this century, something feels off, a directionless structure looking for something to tie it all together. Just my observations though. Please share your thoughts in the comments.
A final encore
You have reached the end of this newsletter. Thank you very much for reading the first edition of the layout. This will be done weekly by the way. Please subscribe before you leave and I will like to give you a special musical gift for your troubles. Enjoy!