Visual Metaphors, Analogies, and Similes

Visual Metaphors

Highlight the product’s benefit by showing something different with the same quality.

Small caption: "Cadilac. Library-quiet interior."

🥘 Creative recipe

Let’s try this with Fisherman’s Friend mint lozenges:

1) Pick an adjective that describes the product. For example, “strong.”

2) Find other things that are strong.

🤖 GPT prompt: “List 20 things that are strong. Include examples from pop culture, daily life, nature, and more.”

🛠️ Tool: ThingsDB – a website that compiles examples of things that are “fast,” “slow,” “quiet,” and dozens of other adjectives.

3) Combine the product and the visual representation of that strong thing:

Visual Analogies

Compare the product with something unexpected to explain the benefit. Great for tech products.

Small caption: "Design is nothing if it’s not smart."

 

Here’s an example that my art director and I created for Demoleap, an AI assistant for salespeople:

🥘 Creative recipe

 1) Benefit

Demoleap gives you an unfair advantage, setting you apart from other sales reps.

2) Analogy

We listed other situations in which people have an unfair advantage:

• Having a time machine during a history quiz
• Wearing an invisibility cloak in a hide-and-seek game
• Riding a jet ski in a swimming competition

🤖 Prompt: “Create 10 analogies for [product benefit].”

🛠️ Tool: Analogenie – AI analogy generator.

3) Visual

We picked the one that would make the clearest and most eye-catching visual and photoshopped it.

Visual Similes

Combine your product with a universally known symbol or visual.

Small caption (right): "Flame grilled chicken"

🥘 Creative recipe

1) What’s your main message?

Example: Having a KitKat is a great opportunity to take a break. 

2) Find symbols and visuals related to “break,” “pause,” “stop,” etc. 

⚒️ Tool: TheNounProject – find icons and symbols.

3) Look at your product from different angles – from above, below, close up, upside down, etc. 

4) Connect the product and the symbol or image that you’ve found:

In this recipe

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