Marketers have to alter their message – words and pictures – for a specific audience. Cultural conventions (and national histories and traditions) influence how a target audience will react to visual cues. Realising that everyone, everywhere is not the same – despite talk of the global village – can save international businesses time and money, as can understanding the symbolic value of languages and cultures (we associate German with accuracy and engineering so strongly that French car company Citröen adopted German identity to sell its C5 car – the campaign's slogan was "Unmistakeably German"). It also makes sense to design layouts that accomodate language translations, image changes and legal requirements.

How design and marketing differs from country to country has always interested me. Shows such as 'Tarrant on TV' that show 'wierd' foreign ads indicate we're all aware that marketing approaches differ throughout the world. By undertaking MA International Design and Communication Management I've been able to make sense of the different marketing approaches, the practical problems of international design communication, and gained a solid understanding of how to plan and structure projects efficiently.

This study supports what I learned as European Principal Designer for an American corporation in Germany, responsible for producing materials for the pan-European market. I have 15 years experience of design for multi-lingual print-runs, translation management and typesetting, source-text preparation and economy of design.

I’m here for hire as a design consultant! I also speak German and have completed translations and English-editing of marketing texts.

The examples of contemporary world marketing communication, some quite shocking, are from www.adsoftheworld.com. If you half an hour spare, read my essay on language and national steroetypes as marketing tools (1.3mb)