In Design Week: Is your brand getting lost in translation?

In a feature for Design Week, Space Doctors Managing Director Cato Hunt explored a common but often overlooked issue in the creative process: the “intended meaning gap.” It’s the disconnect between what a brand sets out to communicate and how that message is ultimately expressed through design, packaging, campaigns, or experiences.

This gap can lead to creative that misses the mark — failing to resonate with audiences, losing cultural relevance, or simply not delivering on the original strategic intent.

Why It Happens

Cato points to a few key culprits:

• Vague creative briefs that use broad, subjective language like “empowering” or “fun” without defining what that actually looks like.
• Fragmented processes, where different teams or agencies work from different interpretations of the same strategy.
• Lack of cultural nuance, especially in global campaigns where meaning doesn’t always translate across markets.
• The result? Creative that feels disconnected, diluted, or just doesn’t land.

How to Close the Gap

Cato’s advice is clear: strategy and creative need to be more tightly aligned – and that starts with better briefs and a deeper understanding of culture.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

1. Interrogate the Brief

Don’t take the words at face value. Ask what they really mean – and what they don’t. Push for clarity and alignment before the creative process begins.

2. Use Semiotics to Decode Meaning

Semiotics helps identify where meaning breaks down and where new cultural cues are emerging. It’s a powerful tool for ensuring creative work resonates in the right way.

3. Design for Cultural Context

What works in one market may fall flat in another. Cato highlights the example of Cazadores tequila, whose 2022 redesign drew on the spiritual significance of the stag in Mexican culture—an insight that transformed the brand’s visual identity.

4. Build in Diverse Perspectives

Creative teams need to be more porous and collaborative, bringing in different cultural viewpoints to avoid blind spots and surface richer ideas.

Why it matters

In a world of shrinking budgets and rising expectations, brands can’t afford to waste creative energy. The best work is both strategically faithful and culturally fluent—and that only happens when strategy is treated as a creative act in itself.

As Cato puts it, “Great strategy doesn’t always result in great creative—and not all great creative is strategic. But when the two are aligned, the results can be transformative.”

Read the full article here: https://www.designweek.co.uk/strategy-design-gap-cato-hunt-space-doctors/

Want to explore how your brand can close the gap between strategy and creative? Let’s talk.