Our Process for Building a Solid and Relevant Identity
The combination of all of the elements that make up the company’s aesthetic is more or less, its identity. Its a visual presentation of the company as a whole. Identity design is based on the visual elements created by a brand expert to build cohesive and appealing sales tools, marketing collateral and tradedress. A specific set of guidelines are developed, inspected and examined to ensure that a company’s brand identity remains intact throughout all avenues and each element adds value to the overall visual feel. To learn more about the ideation process, read my blog about Creating Iconic Brands.
Marrying these elements, the brand expert will create a brand manual and style guide which should be studied and followed closely as it illustrates how the Identity is applied throughout all mediums by using exact color palettes, specific fonts, pre-approved layouts, etc. By establishing and following these guidelines early on, the company can begin the process of building brand recognition, customer loyalty and achieve success by offering a cohesive message and visual aesthetic no matter where the customer encounters them.
To illustrate how each element works together to form a corporate identity, we’ll take a journey through the process using a client of mine and the identity I created for them.
Logo Development
In this case, I had been working with LoPresti Aviation for four years within the limitations of an existing identity they had when I was contracted to do collateral for them. When leadership changed hands, the new owner contacted me to strategize a completely new look (something I had been itching to do since the first sales deck I had produced for them.I started from a slightly difference place than I usually do (see my typical logo design process here), instead choosing to skip some initial steps simply because I already knew so much about the company. I already had a good understanding of their values, competitors, position in the market and goals. The SWOT analysis had already been performed and metrics defined. The first sprint of heavy lifting was in the past. So in this case, I chose to start by confirming if my view of the company’s ideal presentation was aligned with the view the new owner had for the future of the company.
I asked him if there were any elements that needed to stay from the old brand. (Sort of, yes…more on that below). I asked how he wanted the customer to FEEL when they interacted with the company. (Safe and as if they were dealing with THE professionals of the trade). From these and several other questions, I was able to determine four solid personal characteristics that were the foundation of the company’s representation: Dependable, Innovative, Accessible and Bright
The old identity utilized bright yellow, orange, red and a ‘swoosh’. The new owners wanted to maintain some similarity to the old brand. Specifically, they loved the movement expressed by the swoosh and a secondary use of the warm color palette but wanted a more ‘high-end’ feel. I chose to represent movement by positioning the plane as if it were landing or taking off. This ambiguity would also allow the user to unconsciously assign perspective resulting in an organic connection to the mark. I liked the idea that yellow represents optimism, brightness and sunshine in color theory (one of their main product lines is super bright HID lighting systems). It is also the most easy to see color of all the rainbow. This worked right into their product line of high visibility aftermarket lighting.
I chose a warm yellow for its additional connotations of durability (think construction tools) and because when combined with black and grey (the other brand colors we chose to convey elegance, prestige, and stability), the overall presentation was one of sophisticated illumination. I also replaced the old standard italic serif typeface with a sturdier serif/slab serif hybrid. Then, I manually adjusted some of the ligatures and skew so that it nodded to the old brandmark while departing from the commonality of the previous type.
Establishing Best Practices for the Brand
Once the logo was finalized, I further defined the identity by solidifying typefaces, accent colors, patterns, additional supplementary graphical elements, margins and use guidelines. The result of this process would eventually become the style guide which was used as a reference on how to use the brand elements and to ensure that the visual representation of the company is always congruent.
Utilizing the Style Guide to Create Collateral
By carefully following the guidelines and best practices set forth by the style guide, I began to create the various sales tools and internal business collateral utilizing the approved color palette, typeface, patterns and image standards. A typical starting identity suite from a designer would include letterhead, business cards and perhaps a presentation/pitch deck template. In this case, however, I was contracted to work beyond just defining and developing the identity. I was also tasked with creating many additional pieces including presentation folders, envelopes and sales sheets for various airplane models.
So Why Is This Important?
Everything from the shape, the colors and the type to the arrangement of elements, the use of space and minimum standards for imagery are all important components. When combined, they offer the viewer a dynamic view of your company. It’s that view and the resulting opinion formed in the mind of the consumer that will motivate how he or she engages with the company moving forward. Given that successful marketing and design expertly leverage the three “V’s” of communication (55% Visual, 7%Verbal [what is said], 38% Vocal [how it’s said]), it could be argued that your identity (or visual representation) comprises 55% of customer’s first impression. And since you only get one shot at a first impression, you should be deliberate, careful, and thoughtful. What you’d like that first impression to be? How you want your customer to feel in response to seeing it? How you will achieve that response through your corporate identity?
Think of it like this: if the logo is the face of the company, the facial expression and body language are its Identity. As a side note, the brand is how all of the above plus beliefs, personality, style of voice, etc are perceived by the audience….but more on that in a future post.
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