
You have an upcoming marketing or sales campaign and want promotional materials that have the right combination of imaging, color, design, and narrative to make the biggest impact on your customers. How can you design the right balance for your materials to make that impact?
Balancing Perfection and Excellence
The 19th-century American essayist, Henry David Thoreau, had great advice for us living with the overload of the information age: "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand..."
On the other hand, we can temper Thoreau's advice with a caveat by Albert Einstein: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." So how do you strike a balance between perfection and excellence? What are the enemies of simplicity?
The Enemies of Simplicity
Marty Neumeier addresses the enemies of simplicity in his book The Brand Flip. The enemies of simplicity, according to the author, can sabotage your marketing in 7 ways:

So, remember that in our enthusiasm to succeed, we can create clutter. Start simple and build that foundation. To paraphrase our friend Thoreau, your castles in the air are where they should be. "Now put the foundations under them."