2 builders who never spoke to each other

Carry the whole idea in one designed image

A complicated argument compressed into a single graphic travels further than the argument written out, and attention goes to whatever looks unlike everything else in the feed. Making the artefact in a medium nobody can copy quickly, hand lettering or a physical object, does the compressing and the standing out at once.

The method

1. 01

   Compress a complicated idea into one designed graphic, and if you cannot design, find a designer in your network and trade your copy for their artwork.

2. 02

   Work out the visual convention everyone in your feed follows, then break it, because attention goes to whatever looks alien among near-identical content.

3. 03

   Compress the idea to its shortest form for social instead of trying to fit the whole argument into the image.

4. 04

   Make quote images in a medium nobody else can copy, hand lettering, engraving, a physical object, rather than a template anyone could produce.

What it returned

• Tamati's post was carried by a single elaborate visual, which Welsh judged the reason it worked.

• Coinbase's Super Bowl spot is the big-budget case. Adam Grant reposts his tweets to LinkedIn like everyone else, but runs a filter over the screenshot to shift its colour tone so it stops the scroll.

• A full post about supporting creators rather than criticising them reduces to a four-word line that lands immediately

• Sean McCabe's hand-lettered pieces both carry the idea and stand out visually

Sources

• Attention - Why We Buy 🧠Katelyn Bourgoin · customercamp.co · 6: Foreign (aka Von Restorff Effect) · undated
• 3 Game-Changing Self-Promotion Strategies from Under-the-Radar CreatorsJustin Welsh · justinwelsh.me · Use Visuals to Simplify the Complex · 2023-04-01
• How to fix podcasting’s critical flawNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Images · 2018-10-22