Raymond Loewy created some of the most well-known designs of the 20th century. The French designer brought modern aesthetics to the U.S. designing trains and cars using sleek, aerodynamic shapes, and created classic objects of American culture like the Lucky Strike package and Coca-Cola soda fountains.
His secret formula was M.A.Y.A. (most advanced yet acceptable). While creating these hallmarks of design, Loewy used what was then an undiscovered recipe for good design: a combination of familiarity with more exciting or novel characteristics.
A simpler way to sum it up might be… Familiar Surprise - something bold and innovative but instantly understood.
Humans evolved so that subconsciously they know if something hasn't killed them yet it's probably safe. If we look to the visual arts, there are tomes written on the psychology of color; e.g. red = passion (most likely due to being the same color as blood), blue = trust/safety (water or the sky, both sources of life). The Law of Familiarity states that things forming familiar patterns are likely to be grouped together. A step further, people even conflate familiarity (or repetition) with the truth.
Familiar surprise means something first needs to be familiar to be popular, but if it's too familiar it's not surprising!
A study in 2011 on why people like or dislike objects had participants rate objects in terms of their familiarity and originality. You guessed it, the study found people prefer objects that encompass both. A quick example - while Loewy’s train designs were clearly recognizable as trains, the streamlined bullet shape added a surprising element that helped separate them from the crowd.
Taste in music gravitates towards repetition too. Just look at the Billboard 100 - once a song becomes popular, it stays popular for months. The way our brains are wired, slight variations are enough to popularize a repetitive song. Funny enough, this is a trait we share with mice. If you play a mouse a note, it pays attention initially but as it gets used to it, will stop listening. If you then add a new note to it, the mouse will become suddenly alert.
The new note doesn’t just grab attention it also retains it, so that when the tune goes back to the original, the mouse keeps listening. This single variation is sufficient to break the mouse’s complacency and return its interest. In the experiment the most effective pattern for retaining attention was BBBBC-BBBC-BBC-BC-D. Very similar to the structure of successful pop songs that follow a pattern of; verse-verse, chorus, verse-chorus, bridge. In this way, our taste for music is similar to that of design; as long as they contain a slight variation, people are drawn to repetitive and familiar sounds.
In the late 90's, the top ten films were all original. These days they're all sequels. Hollywood and the game industry have both matured and realized that franchises are a safer bet, and double-down to reduce risk.
There’s a science to popularity, but it’s not an exact one.
Continued in Part 2 - Early Adopters