Universal Symbols and the Collective Unconscious: The Secret Language of Archetypes in Media

Have you ever heard the phrase ‘good artists borrow, great artists steal’? No? Me neither (I had to Google it for this blog post), but we’ve all heard some variant of this age-old phrase that suggests no idea is completely original. It’s true, as creators we are constantly recycling the ideas, experiences, and cultural happenings that define our personal worlds.

When we tap into these things, we tap into shared experience, and ultimately, our collective unconscious: psychologist Carl Jung's ever-growing vault of memories, symbols, and archetypes that transcends individual experience and connects us all.

Understanding the Archetypes
We’re all familiar with some archetypes, look at them as character types. For example, we have ‘the mother’, ‘the maiden’, ‘the hero’, ‘the sage’, and countless others that we subconsciously recognise and connect with. They’re woven into the media we consume, and they shape every single one of the stories that resonate with us on a deeper, almost instinctual level.

So, what is it I’m trying to say? I’ve been banging on about archetypes for a good minute here. What I’m trying to say is that as art directors, as people who create, we are essentially curators of universal symbols, mixing and matching them for a modern audience.

Tools for Emotional Resonance
Understanding these archetypes is important for creators. In art direction, knowing which archetype you’d like to evoke can guide everything from colour choices to composition, typography to imagery, to the movement and motifs featured in your work.

It’s like having an endless box of tools that really help create understanding and emotional resonance, but the tools are universal patterns, and the box is the lived experience of all your ancestors, plus everyone else who’s ever lived on planet earth. Still with me? No? Me neither.

Connecting with Your Audience
Now, here I’d say let's come back down to earth, but for topics like this, keeping our heads in the clouds is half the fun. So, audiences subconsciously recognise these archetypes, they help give our stories, designs, and concepts an almost built-in emotional impact. Guiding how people think about our work, feel about it, and connect with it.

When paying attention, it’s easy to see how these archetypes are embedded within every piece of media we consume, from blockbusters to ads and brand campaigns. For example, we all become ‘the hero’ when being told to ‘just do it’, and we anticipate the genius and innovation of ‘the creator’ when the latest iPhone is announced.

Archetypes aren’t just abstract concepts, they’re tools, guides to creating things that speak directly to our shared subconscious understanding. Thoughtful application of these archetypes can be what makes your work leave a lasting impression, so next time you’re designing a campaign or building a brand’s world, remember to include the language of our shared human experience.