Understanding Visual Identity: Components, Unity, and Branding Objectives

1. Chapter 7Visual Identity and Branding

2. Objectives (1 of 2) • Define visual identity. • List the most common applications comprising a visual identity. • Comprehend the meaning of a visual identity program that coordinates every aspect of graphic design material. • Recognize when and why visual identities began to become an industry standard. • Identify the objectives of a visual identity program. • Realize that unity with variety creates visual interest across applications.

3. Objectives (2 of 2) • Know the purpose of a graphics standards manual. • Be able to design a visual identity. • Understand the role of the logo as the foundation of a visual identity. • Define brand, branding, and integrated brand experience. • Appreciate the purpose of branding.

4. Defining Visual Identity • The visual and verbal articulation of a brand or group including all pertinent design applications, such as, letterhead, business card, and packaging, among many other possible applications • Also called a corporate identity or brand identity Stationery Design firm: DMA

5. Visual Identity Components • A visual identity consists of the following integrated components: • A brand name • Logo • Letterhead • Business card • Packaging • Web site • Any other application pertinent to a particular brand

6. Background • The post-war period in the 1950s brought about a clear need for visual identities, especially for corporations.

7. Unity with Variety in a Visual Identity • Continuity must be established among the various designs in a visual identity. • There must be a “family resemblance” among the designs. Visual identity and graphics programDesign firm: Vignelli Associates

8. Graphics Standard Manual • Most designers prepare a graphics standard manual that guides the client in the use of the identity detailing the use of the logo, colors, and other graphics and imagery. Graphic standards manualDesign firm: Danne & Blackburn Inc.

9. Audience • When designing a visual identity, you must know your audience. • Levi’s SilverTab Jeans is aimed at a young audience. Graphic identity and graphics programDesign firm: Michael Mabry

10. Color Palette • An appropriate and distinguishing color palette is crucial to making a visual identity memorable. Corporate identityDesign firm: Shira Shecter Studio

11. Visitor Experience • An effective visual identity can enhance the user’s experience. IdentityDesign firm: Pentagram

12. Logo as Key of Visual Identity • In any visual identity, it is the logo that is the cornerstone. • For CompuSoluciones, Ideograma created "the rings of the solutions,” a symbol that represents the company’s four areas of business. Corporate identityDesign firm: Ideograma

13. Suggestions • Creating a visual identity system is an extensive design project and you will need a list of criteria to keep in mind. Your objectives are: • Coordinating all of a company’s graphic design material • Establishing an image for the company • Expressing the personality or spirit of the company • Creating an appropriate design for the client

14. Creating a system that is flexible enough to work in a variety of applications • Creating a system with a long life span • Creating a system immediately identified with the company • Creating a system that will stand up against the competition

15. Branding • In today’s marketplace, where, in almost all cases – there is more supply than demand and several brands in each product or service category and the world wide web is a new means of establishing brands – it is vital to a company’s marketing strategy to establish a brand for their product or service • Branding is a product or service’s identity in the marketplace.

16. Definition of Branding (1 of 2) • Branding is the entire development process of creating a brand, brand name, a brand identity, and might include other applications. Brand identity and environmental designDesign firm: Landor Associates Branding Consultants and Designers Worldwide

17. Definition of Branding (2 of 2) • An integrated brand experience is the creation of a comprehensive strategic, unified, integrated, creative program for a brand including every graphic design and advertising application for that brand with an eye and mind on how consumers and individuals experience the brand or group as each interacts with it. Brand identity and environmental designDesign firm: Landor Associates Branding Consultants and Designers Worldwide

18. A brand is a mixture of visual identity, advertising, and marketing, with emphasis placed on the logo, consistency of the visual identity, and the uniqueness and marketability of the product name. • Businesses use brands as a way of establishing their foothold in a product category. • To establish a new brand, a designer and client must invent a product name.

19. Once the name is invented, then the designer creates a logo and visual identity system, which could include a variety of design applications – from stationery to environmental design to packaging to truck signage. • Then, advertising is created for the brand. • Designers are also faced with the challenge of reinventing a brand, renaming a brand, and/or redesigning a brand logo and visual identity.

20. Inventing a company name • The name should be appropriate for the client’s product or service. • The name should communicate the client’s spirit or personality. • The name should be memorable and creative. That is: edgy, fresh, funny, sweet, clever, colorful, or whatever makes sense for the product or service. • The name could convey the product’s or service’s unique selling point. • The name should have a long life span.

21. Inventing a company name • If the company is national or international, the name should fit the status. • If the brand is international, the name should be adaptable to foreign markets. • Keep in mind any brand extensions, that is new products with the same brand, for example the variety of Arm & Hammer products including baking soda, toothpaste, deodorant, and cat litter.

22. Summary (1 of 3) • A visual identity is the visual and verbal articulation of a brand or group including all pertinent design applications, such as, letterhead, business card, and packaging, among many other possible applications. • The most common applications of any visual identity include the logo, letterhead, and other related business correspondence. • Continuity must be established among the various designs in a visual identity.

23. Summary (2 of 3) • Most designers prepare a graphics standard manual that guides the client in the use of the identity detailing use of the logo, colors, and other graphics and imagery. • Branding is the entire development process of creating a brand, brand name, a brand identity, and might include other applications. • Creating an integrated brand experience entails understanding the weaving of a common thread or voice –– integrating the common language into all experiences with the brand.

24. Summary (3 of 3) • An integrated brand experience is the creation of a comprehensive strategic, unified, integrated, creative program for a brand including every graphic design and advertising application for that brand with an eye and mind on how consumers and individuals experience the brand or group as each interacts with it. • Designers also revitalize brands by: reinventing a brand, renaming a brand, and/or redesigning a brand logo and visual identity.