Like art, design has the power to resonate at an emotional level. Just as Mark Rothko stirs our subconscious through abstraction, designers are challenged to convey specific ideas without specific symbols. We can paste a smiley face, or we can use typography that simply feels jovial. We can bury the smile so deep that most won’t clock it until the fourth or fifth encounter.

Design that asks for a bit of effort from the audience is more likely to encode in their mind than design that slips easily in and out of their consciousness. A logo formulated to linger in the mind for just a few seconds longer, building up to the satisfying moment of decryption, gives the audience a sense of achievement in having “joined the secret club.”

One classic example is the reference to Genesis, or Newtonian revelation, in Apple’s apple. Others include the undulating typography used by Matson, the shipping giant. These designs invite outsiders to “finish their sentence,” thereby welcoming interaction.

The challenge in getting designs of this school approved by clients is the fear that people won’t get it. We argue that getting it isn’t always the goal. Would Brâncuși’s ‘Bird in Space’ be an immortal work of art if it were simply a bird in space? While art and design are different species of human expression, they share this principle: easy to get, easy to forget.