I've worked in small and big design shops. When done right, the process should make sense to a layperson, like you're respecting their intelligence.
This Pepsi rebrand farce feels more like The Emperor's New Clothes. My guess, and someone with more knowledge can absolutely correct me, is that whatever agency bid for the job, they knew they were basically milking Pepsi for every penny they could, and it was pure greed. And in order to justify the utterly exorbitant estimate, they pulled so much bullshit out of their asses hoping to completely overwhelm the clients and utterly baffle and confuse them and make them feel too stupid to even ask about anything.
Basically, design process should make sense and be understandable to the average empathetic, intelligent business owners.
When done right, the process should make sense to a layperson
Yes, absolutely. A company I worked for paid big money for a design firm to do a brand makeover.
The head of the design firm cautioned our CEO: "If we do this right, the result will not be mindblowing to you. In fact, your reaction might be 'duh - that's really obvious.' Because you already know who you are."
(paraphrased)
I really liked that sentiment. I thought that company did a great job, both on the brand identity itself and on the communication.
Having done some identity work, some stuff is done on purpose and some stuff is justified post-hoc to make the pitch better.
“It looks nice” doesn’t play all that well, and doesn’t give you much protection from a decision maker who (incorrectly) says “I think my idea looks nicer”.
This is not representative of all design experiences though, I’m sure.
Can anyone tell me if there is even an iota of meaning in the design process?