‘Stick a leaf on it’: how small visual changes drive big results

Brian Carruthers

Visual cues are fundamental to decision-making and, therefore, to branding, as they constitute the heuristics - mental shortcuts - that avoid thinking too hard.

Visual cues dominate our decision making, according to Elina Halonen of Irrational Agency. “It’s often the first sense to activate especially when buying something - we see it before any other sense activates.” Brands therefore need to consider carefully what imagery they are using, not least because “signs and symbols are visual heuristics” - the mental shortcuts the brain takes in decision making to avoid having to think too hard.

At Qual360 (Berlin, February 2018), Halonen offered some instances from her work in cognitive semiotics, a relatively new discipline which, she explained, uncovers the mental architecture of meaning through the...

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