Category: Branding
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The first Annual Brand of the Year
The pink, cat-eared “pussyhat” that became the icon of the Women’s March in January has been announced as the first ever “Brand of the Year” by SVA Masters in Branding Chair Debbie Millman. In 1964, the late Marshall McLuhan coined, “The medium is the message.” He ushered in the notion that both the message and…
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The future of branding
“…the assumption that a brand is just a look is fading, and finally people are beginning to realise that a brand is more a result.”
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“The appointment of a design consultant needn’t always culminate in change.”
It’s a familiar story — there’s a change at the top of an organisation and a rebrand is one of the first things to happen. But it’s often a backward step, where what follows is no better than what came before, while costing a fortune to implement. “…the fact that British consultancy North has just…
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Six brand questions for clients to answer
“Starting in the right place and answering the right questions, rather than starting in the wrong place and offering solutions to the wrong problems.”
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Giving voice to ideas
Copywriting can be about much more than just tone of voice. It can form an integral part of a company’s brand strategy.
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Context is key
A valuable lesson on dealing with design clients, from Chermayeff & Geismar’s 2011 book Identify.
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Brand naming resources
It’s easy to think anyone can come up with a good name, but it’s more complicated than that. “An idea can come from anywhere, but getting buy in and seeing it through is tough. In fact, naming can be one of the hardest parts of a branding project.” From a naming handbook by Wolff Olins.…
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You (generally) get what you pay for
Tabloid stories about new designs tend to focus on two things: the money, and the logo. Here’s an example. Irish Water (who spent €50,000,000 on consultants in 2013, but that’s another story) hires Dublin-based Zero-G to create a new brand identity. The Daily Mail reports the fee as “€20,000 — €5,000 per word.” Credit: Laura…
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The influence of colour in brand identity
Who wants 50 shades of grey when you’ve got the choice of the rainbow? Written by Laura Hussey, partner and creative director at London-based SomeOne. It’s drizzly, it’s grey, everyone is wearing black and I’m a Celebrity is back on the telly tempting me with the lush green Australian rainforest and it’s vast, bright blue…
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Defining iconic brands
Computer Arts editor Nick Carson asked me to name three contemporary, iconic brands. Nick also asked what I think defines an iconic brand, if this has changed in recent times compared to classic brands of previous decades, and if a brand can be iconic without a great logo. My three picks: Google, Subway, IKEA. Image…