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Original source: Jorge Agüero
This video from Jorge Agüero covered a lot of ground. Streamed.News selected 8 key moments and summarises them here. Everything below links directly to the timestamp in the original video.
Reflect on how the world's most iconic brands achieved their status. Was it through complexity, or through the most direct and universally comprehensible communication? This analysis offers a counterintuitive perspective that challenges preconceived notions of creativity in design.
Obviousness as a communicational value in successful brands
Several globally recognized brands — including Anís del Mono, Nokia, Avis, Carlsberg, and Corona — demonstrate the effectiveness of obviousness in their communication strategies. These examples highlight how direct, unambiguous messages and symbols, such as the monkey on Anís del Mono's label or Nokia's "connecting people" slogan, constitute a fundamental communicational value that designers often underestimate, typically prioritizing originality over clarity. The "I Love New York" design stands as an emblematic case for this thesis, universally admired for its simplicity and unmistakable legibility — exposing the contradiction inherent in those who celebrate it while conceptually rejecting obviousness.
This preference for ambiguity in design, at the expense of clarity and function, represents a perverse discourse that undermines communicational effectiveness. Resistance to obviousness prevents messages from flowing naturally and being accessible to all audiences, including those without specialized knowledge. Far from being a flaw, obviousness — when correctly applied — ensures immediate and universal recognition, establishing a solid and lasting bond with consumers. This is vital to a brand's endurance and success within the collective imagination.
"Nobody questions it, everyone admires it, but no one draws the proper conclusions. It is admirable precisely because there is not a single trace of arbitrariness. It is obvious — even the illiterate can read it."
Creativity in design: perfection above originality
Creativity, in its most rigorous sense, is not expressed in the mere pursuit of originality for its own sake, but in the achievement of the functional and aesthetic perfection of an object or message. In a world rife with defects, true mastery lies in doing things correctly — and, where possible, flawlessly. Apple's trajectory illustrates this concept: after a bold initial break with a rainbow-colored logo, the company evolved toward the simple, universally recognized obviousness of the bitten apple — a standard pictogram that has transcended its origins to become a generic icon in the collective imagination.
This evolution of Apple's logo reveals a strategic lucidity that prioritizes clarity and iconicity over relentless aesthetic novelty. The adoption of a symbol as conventional as an apple — already functioning as an established pictogram in signage systems — demonstrates that copying what works can, at times, surpass forced originality. This approach challenges deep-rooted biases in the design field, where the constant pursuit of the "new" often paralyzes professionals, preventing them from achieving quality and communicational effectiveness by privileging mannerism over design's essential function.
"Creativity in a world weary of defects — true creativity is doing things well, and if possible, perfectly."
Rubén Fontana praises the Central Bank of Argentina's redesign for its embrace of the obvious
The rebranding of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic, carried out by Rubén Fontana, is an exemplary intervention that succeeded in preserving the symbolic obviousness of the Republic's emblem. Fontana, celebrated for his creativity, demonstrated a profound understanding that in certain contexts the right solution lies in what is standard and traditional — without surrendering to the "horror of the obvious" that afflicts other designers. His work involved refining and stripping back the republican sphinx, which had appeared on Argentina's first peso coin in the nineteenth century, removing superfluous elements and reinforcing its iconicity — a process that produced a masterpiece of enduring cultural validity.
This strategic decision stands in sharp contrast to the "paranoia" prevalent in design circles, where the relentless pursuit of differentiation can lead to ineffective solutions — even in non-competitive institutions such as central banks. Retaining a symbol shared by other Latin American republics and deeply embedded in public consciousness was a sound choice, since a central bank's identifying function demands no "innovation" that distances it from its symbolic heritage. Fontana's mastery lies in recognizing that what is correct is what fulfills its mission with perfection, honoring tradition and legibility — not originality at any cost.
"Rubén Fontana, a tremendously creative and gifted designer, doesn't get swept up in the nonsense of fearing the obvious. He understands that in some cases, the obvious is simply the right answer."
The Sony brand and the 'undesigned door': a critique of bias against the obvious in design
The Sony brand, globally recognized, serves as a paradigmatic example of how 'obviousness' in design can be synonymous with success, despite criticism from certain designers. Its use of a standard typeface — dismissed as 'bland' by some who perceive a supposed lack of 'work' behind it — has proven to be a perfect choice for its purpose, resonating particularly with teenage audiences. This preference for complexity or forced originality, at the expense of the clarity and functionality inherent in the obvious, reveals a bias that is lamentably widespread in the design field.
This prejudice against the 'perfect' and the 'standard' manifests itself in anecdotes such as that of an architecture professor who rejected the design of a conventional door for being 'undesigned,' demanding an unnecessary reinvention. Such a mindset ignores the fact that the obvious, when functional and efficient, is precisely the most appropriate solution. The obsession with mannerist intervention and the concealment of functionality — as seen in illegible books or impractical faucets — distorts design's primary mission: to serve the user in a clear and effective manner. Rather than pursuing constant reinvention, the true challenge lies in mastering what already works well.
"This door is not designed. I was baffled. I thought, why do I have to reinvent something that already works perfectly well?"
Modesty and self-criticism in design: avoiding unnecessary 'notoriety'
The failure of certain 'nation branding' efforts to embrace the obvious underscores the need for clear and simple identification in design. The insistence on finding a needlessly clever angle rather than accepting evident solutions leads to confused and ineffective messaging — as illustrated when a Chilean product, already bearing its national flag, redundantly adds the text 'Chilean product.' By contrast, design intelligence manifests itself in the ability to modify a logo imperceptibly over time, as both MoMA and Coca-Cola have done across the decades, with the deliberate aim of avoiding 'notoriety' and not disrupting what already works.
This approach — which prioritizes continuity and efficiency over constant disruption — demands self-criticism and modesty from the designer. Not every intervention need be drastic or visibly 'creative'; true mastery lies in discerning when a brief calls for a break from convention and when, on the contrary, it demands orthodox rigor to preserve the integrity of an established sign. The 'psychopathy' of avoiding the obvious, which extends even to non-competitive sectors, stems from an undue extrapolation of the planned obsolescence logic of consumer markets, contaminating culture with a pursuit of innovation for its own sake that neglects design's primary communicative function.
"Coca-Cola has been imperceptibly modifying its logo over more than a century, precisely so that no one notices."
Design prioritizes functional perfection over aesthetic originality
Design, in its most rigorous essence, is not governed by internal principles or abstract universal demands — it finds its sole guiding principle in achieving perfection for the specific mission it has been assigned. This approach stands in sharp contrast to the prevailing ethos in design education, which often urges students to be creative, original, and disruptive, a directive that can lead to 'disasters' in practice. True creativity in design lies in optimizing functionality and efficiency, as illustrated by the example of syringes: innovation does not manifest itself in capricious aesthetics, but in reducing material usage without compromising structural integrity or ease of use for healthcare workers.
This perspective repositions the value of design in its capacity to solve concrete problems impeccably, rather than in mere aesthetic novelty. The 'brief' — that is, the interpretation of a need translated into specifications — must be the starting point and fundamental guide for any design project. Conceiving design as an outcome that follows from a well-defined brief, without any preestablished principles of its own, frees the designer from the pressure of forced originality and orients them toward functional excellence. The quality of a design is thus measured by its fitness for purpose, not by its capacity to surprise or break with convention without clear intent.
"Design has no principles — only ends. The only principle is that something be perfect for that which it was designed to do."
Obviousness as the most correct solution in design: a defense against constant disruption
In the field of design, obviousness should not be feared — in many contexts, it represents the most appropriate and correct solution. Contrary to the widespread notion that breaking with conventions and precedents is always the primary goal, such disruption is only relevant when the brief or communicational need demands it. Forcing originality purely for the sake of breaking conventions can lead to ineffective outcomes, while in many cases the designer's task comes down to executing what is simply "right" in a straightforward and direct manner.
This thesis is illustrated through a personal anecdote about choosing an "obvious" birthday cake for a 50th anniversary celebration — a detail that, precisely because of its simplicity and cultural resonance, proved to be the most fitting choice for the occasion. This everyday example, far removed from graphic or industrial design, reveals that the "horror of the obvious" is a prejudice that must be overcome. The "naturalness" of a message — allowing it to flow without obstruction and deliver its content with clarity — is what truly generates satisfaction. The designer must therefore discern when to adhere to the standard and when to innovate, always guided by the mission of the design.
"Breaking with conventions, with precedents, with the obvious, is not always the programmatic goal of design."
The "psychopathy" of avoiding the obvious: an effect of planned obsolescence in design
The reluctance to embrace the obvious in design — which manifests as a kind of "psychopathy" within the profession — is not an inherent pathology of designers or institutions, but rather a side effect of the structural logic of planned obsolescence. This phenomenon, which promotes the constant turnover of products and the symbolic devaluation of what already exists, has permeated even non-competitive spheres such as central bank design. Rather than prioritizing clarity, common symbolism, and straightforward identification, these institutions are drawn into a circuit of innovation for innovation's sake, mistakenly placed on a par with commercial banks subject to market competition.
This distortion leads to "innovation" being pursued as an end in itself, neglecting the primary function of identification in a context where heightened differentiation is entirely unnecessary. In the identification of countries, for example, a flag or a text-based name is often sufficient, and the pursuit of elaborate symbols only impedes legibility and global recognition. The "psychopathy" of rejecting the evident is therefore a symptom of how the dominant socioeconomic conditions of the consumer market corrupt the fundamental purpose of design — which should be effective communication and usability, not programmed novelty.
"This psychopathy is a side effect of a structural condition of our society."
Also mentioned in this video
- Talk topic: "The Horror of the Obvious" in design, a bias... (0:00)
- "Intelligibility" in design discussed, exemplified by... (1:08)
- Designers and architects criticized for euphemizing messages... (3:32)
- Euphemism and lack of intelligibility in bank branding criticized... (9:02)
- Design school teachers criticized for overwhelming students with... (17:44)
- Biases explained as resistant to reality, illustrated with examples... (30:20)
- Many designers argued to cling to myths and biases about... (34:52)
Summarised from Jorge Agüero · 49:27. All credit belongs to the original creators. Streamed.News summarises publicly available video content.
