Archetypes have the ability to immediately conjure meaning because they embody a universally known set of characteristics. We all know these classic archetypes from literature and film: For example, The Hero is a courageous defender of the underdog, or the Caregiver, who is always empathetic and comforting, or The Outlaw who rebels against the status quo. Based on Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious, with contributions from Margaret Mark’s and Carol Pearson’s “The Hero and the Outlaw”, we’ve adapted the twelve classic archetypes as tools in the visual process to guide strategic design choices.

People rely on heuristics – mental shortcuts to make decisions – which are powerful when visual. Our brains are hardwired to process the world and its information visually, and it’s this unconscious autopilot mode of thinking that controls our decision-making. By applying visual heuristics to archetypes, we create a visual shorthand that taps archetypes’ universal meaning while leveraging a quick and intuitive way consumers naturally process information.