mark gerlach

Designing Brand Identity: Practice

Polo and Ralph Lauren

In 1967, Ralph Lauren establishes the Polo label with an instantly successful line of ties. Ties at this time were usually thin and narrow. Lauren came out with a thicken style tie that became the new trend. Lauren named his line after a sport that embodies a world of discreet elegance and classic style: Polo.

“A tie was the way a man expressed himself. I believed that men were ready for something new and different. They didn’t want to look as if they worked for IBM. A beautiful tie was an expression of quality, taste, style.” - Ralph Lauren

The logo
The Polo and Ralph Lauren shows an flat color image of a person on a horse, playing polo. The image represents the elegance and classic style of the sport of polo. People can only see the image of the man playing polo and instantly associate it with this clothing line. Although there is not a lot of interpretation left up to the viewer, this logo is very well known and understandable.

The name Ralph Lauren is shown in an elegant serif typeface with a major contrast in thicks and thins. It is also shown in small caps with the initial letter being bigger. One look at the word mark and logo would make anybody who doesn’t know the company think that this product, whatever it may be is classy and sophisticated.

What I like about this brand is that it is simple but it gets the message across quickly and effectively. It doesn’t matter that the man on a horse is blatantly obvious. The simplicity works well. There isn’t a need to stare at the logo and try to figure out what they are trying to communicate to the audience, as is the case with some logos.

The results of this logo are obvious. It had stood the test of time and the company is still doing well. The logo has had revisions done to it to keep up with the times, but any logo is going to have to go through that. You can see that polo logo and think instantly, I’ve seen that before.

Designing Brand Identity: Process

The brand identity process is a proven and disciplined method for creating and implementing an identity. It is a rigorous process demanding a combination of investigation, strategic thinking, design excellence, and project management skills.
It requires an extraordinary amount of patience, an obsession for getting it right, and an ability to synthesize vast amounts of information.

Research
The first priority is to understand the organization: its mission, vision, target markets, corporate culture, competitive culture, strengths and weaknesses, marketing strategies, and challenges for the future. Research can be done many ways. It can be through reading strategic documents and business plans, all the way up to interviewing key stakeholders. Requesting the appropriate information from a client is the first step, it should precede interviewing of any key management or stakeholders.

Narrowing the Focus
Narrowing the focus means that when you understand the vision, values, mission, culture, target markets, trends, pricing and all the other things, you must then go on to clarifying. This is where you clarify the core values, brand attributes, competitive advantage, and the brand strategy. Once you’ve done that, they you narrow it down more to positioning where you identify the differentiation, value proposition, and the business category. Then you narrow it down even further to brand essence where you clarify the central idea, unifying concept, key messages, and voice and tone. After you’ve narrowed everything down, then you get the big idea.

Brand Brief & Creative Brief
The brand brief contains information such as the vision, the mission, brand essence or big idea, brand attributes, value proposition, guiding principles/key beliefs, target audience, key markets, key competitors, competitive advantage, and stakeholders. It is an agreement about the brand essence and attributes.

On the other hand, the creative brief shows what the creative team needs to know in order to do responsible work aligned with the overall objectives of the project. It includes teams goals, communication goals of all brand identity elements, critical application list, functional and performance criteria, mind map of SWOTs, positioning, protocols, confidentiality statement, documentation system, and benchmarks and presentation dates.

Naming
Naming is a complex, creative, and iterative process requiring experience in linguistics, marketing, research, and trademark law. Some things to know when naming are that brand names are valuable assets. Also, when you are brainstorming, there are no stupid ideas. Always examine in context. Consider sound, cadence, and ease of pronunciation. Be methodical in tracking name selections. Determine smartest searching techniques. Also, remember to review all the criteria before you reject a name.

Designing Symbols & Wordmarks
Design is an iterative process that seeks to integrate meaning with form. A designer may examine hundreds of ideas before focusing on a final choice. It is difficult to create a symbol form that is bold, memorable, and appropriate because we live in an over saturated environment, making it critical to ensure that the solution is unique and differentiated.

Usually, a logotype is juxtaposed with a symbol in a formal relationship called the signature. The best logotypes are a result of careful typographic exploration. Designers consider the attributes of each letterform, as well as the relationships between letterforms. In the best logotypes, letterforms may be redrawn, modified, and manipulated in order to express the appropriate personality and positioning of the company. I can attest to that!

Color

“Color creates emotion, triggers memory, and gives sensation.” - Gael Towey

In the sequence of visual perception, the brain reads color after it registers a shape and before it reads content. Choosing a color for a new identity requires a core understanding of color theory, a clear vision of how the brand needs to be perceived and differentiated, and an ability to master consistency and meaning over a broad range of media. Color is used to evoke emotion, express personality, and stimulate brand association.

Typography
Typography is a core building block of an effective identity program. A unified and coherent company image is not possible without typography that has a unique personality and an inherent legibility. Typography must support the positioning strategy and information hierarchy. Identity program typography needs to be sustainable and not on the curve of a fad.

Sound
Sounds puts you in the mood. It also sends a signal. “Designing and integrating the right sound enhances the experience of a brand.” - Kenny Kahn. Sound needs to be complementary to the existing brand. It can intensify the experience of a brand. Music can trigger an emotional response. Sound, especially music, heightens the brain’s speed of recall. Also, many audio effects are subliminal.

Motion
Bringing brands to life is facilitated by a world in which bandwidth no longer constricts creativity and communication. Although the tools and skills to animate trademarks are available, very few creative professionals have taken full advantage of the medium to communicate a competitive difference. Motion must support the essence and meaning of an identity, not trivialize it.

Applications
Marks should not be shown to the client until rigorous testing and exploration of the concepts viability are complete. From a design perspective, what may work in isolation may not meet the rigors of an entire system design. When testing the concept think of these things. Will it work? Is it scalable? Does it maintain impact? Will it work on different media? Can it move? Will it work in other cultures? Those are just a few things to think of when testing the concept.

AIGA: Design Archives

AIGA Design Archives

The AIGA Design Archives is a great place to look at designs that have been recognized as great design. It is also a great place to find inspiration for a design that we might be working on. Its nice to be able to look at designs that are examples of good typography, imagery, placement, and many others. I took a look at the Design Archives and found some work by people that I’ve heard of, and some that I haven’t heard of.

People I’ve heard of…

1. Milton Glaser - 2nd International Exhibit - I’ve always been a fan of Milton Glaser’s work. His designs are simple but they get the point across very quickly. You can look at his work and understand the message very quickly. One project that comes to mind is his “I ‘heart’ N Y” design. The project I found on the design archives is a good example of his simple yet effective design.

2. Paula Scher - ADC - The reason I picked this design is the difference between the hand drawn faces and the looseness that goes very well with the structured typography on the other page. One page of the layout has this easy going feel and the other page has a real structured feel but they work together and I think that is what drew me to this piece.

3. David Carson - David J - I like David Carson’s work because of the emotion that you feel in his designs. Most of the time it is chaos but in the piece I chose, it isn’t that way. I like the way that the type is wrapped around the outline of a head but in the middle of the page, in a very small picture, is a picture of the guys actual head. I think that there is a strong feel to this piece and thats why I like it.

4. Neville Brody - FUSE98 Program - The reason I chose this piece is because I consider myself s designer who wants to create a simple but effective design that communicates the message instantly. I like to work cleanly and neatly. This piece that I chose is an example of those things. The typography is clean and simple. Although it is small, it is still effective.

5. Paul Rand - Design 63, announcement folder - I liked this piece because it is simple and gets the message across. There seems to be a theme building. I like the typography and the feeling that it portrays. The use of the “8” as a lowercase g is nice.

People I don’t know…

1. R/GA (New York) - Understanding USA website - This website is an effective tool at portraying the message they are trying to communicate. The typography is clean and works well for the piece.

2. Fast Company Magazine - “Lego” article - The photography in this article is really cool and effective I think. The pictures of real people with lego heads on gives off a strong feel. The typography is also clean and easy to read.

3. Rutka Weadock Design - Flight (or) Fight? report - The imagery is strong and effective in this piece. It shows the effects of urbanization on the environment. It kind of makes you think. Good design.

4. Shawn McVicker - Shawn’s Birth Announcement - This is a cool way to show a birth announcement. The picture of a basketball inflated and a picture of it deflated show that the baby has been born. Thinking outside the box a little bit in this one. I like it.

5. Turner Publishing - Offerings at the Wall - This is probably one of my favorite pieces that I saw on the design archives. This is a very strong a powerful patriotic message showing the feelings people may have at the Vietnam War Wall Memorial. The image of sketching over someone’s name in red represents the blood they gave to give us our freedom. I really like this piece.