‘Visual hammers’ drive brands into brains‘Visual hammers’ drive brands into brains

Your potential customer has two brains: a left brain that handles aural words and a right brain that handles visual images.


As your prospects drive down the road at 50 miles per hour, their two brains are assaulted by hundreds of retails signs.


They ignore most of them.


The few images that manage to break through the clutter usually contain what I call a “visual hammer.” Think of KFC’s Colonel Sanders, Target’s target and McDonald’s golden arches. 


A visual hammer such as Colonel Sanders is almost instantly recognized by your right brain, the visual brain. Yet most retail signage is verbal, and the words keep getting bigger.


In an effort to increase visibility, designers keep making the name of the chain larger and more dominant. That’s ...