Brand Design
We design brands. It might be a start-up, a brand refresh or a repositioning. It could be a new name or a new look for a corporation or an SME, a product or a service. Or a place.
We treat brand design as a business activity because brands have a job to do. Their job is to raise awareness, win market share, sell more, build loyalty, attract great people, enhance employee engagement and increase shareholder value.
You may ask, how can a symbol or a set of symbols capture the essence of a brand? It happens by working within the framework of the brand strategy. It’s the framework that informs the development of the design brief. The brand identity elements are reasonably well understood – a name, logo/brand mark, colour palette, typography, graphics, motion and photography styles and messaging. However, strong brands can only emerge when the visual and verbal elements of the brand identity faithfully express the brand strategy.
The brief also needs to be cognisant of a few other important characteristics, such as memorability, distinction and relevance to the target audiences, so the brand identity connects and evokes an emotional response.
Naming, if required, is always the first cab off the rank, and we start the process by exploring territories, followed by workshopping, shortlisting and testing.