Visual Brand identity

A Brand is a Name attached to a product or Service. The brand identity consits of Name, logo, Colors, products and Services. A brand should have a clearly identity to be sucessful.

Brand Name: According to Carlson it is crucial to find a suitable Name for your product. Finding a brand Name has grown into a very large Business. Normally you outsource this to Special agencies like Interbrand in London or Landor in the US. Brand names are selected for the company´s Image and global potential. According to Johansson there are some Basic brand Name rules:

•  The brand should fit with the value Proposition and the intended positioning together
• The brand should be legally available in all potential market countries
• People should pronounce and understand the Name.
• The brand Name should be easy to hear and spell.
• The brand Name should be unique and memorable.

Brand Logo: is an integral part of the brand and it is legally protected. Logos are meant to give a visual representation of the brand. (could also be the Name like in Coca Cola). It should definitley differ from the other competitors. But sometimes you also do not want to differ from maybe a huge competitor. According to Carlson some "pirated products" want to make similar logos as their competitors to confuse their customers. Even when the pay Attention, when the logo Looks similar they can accidentally buy their procuts. Example Starbucks

Brand Slogan: are the short and memorable one-liners that are meant to reflect a unique selling Point of the brand.

Importance of visual brand identity : How to integrate company´s values into visual Branding?

At first you should make a Picture of what the Company is about. According to Thomas Gad you should give them a great deal of freedom to use their creativity and personal talents do design a visual brand. By creating your (visual) brand you must involve 6 aspects: Product/benefit, positioning, style, Mission, Vision(positioning of the future) and values.

How to use it effectively? What apsects to consider when creating a visual brand identity?

In my source Mumgaard, J., Mathew, N., & Prince, M. (n.d.). Expressing Brand Through A Product. Beyond Design Chicago and on the Website http://info.beyonddesignchicago.com/Portals/117474/docs/expressing-brand-through-product-bdi-innovation-2013.pdf?hsCtaTracking=d2feb6b7-867d-419a-8893-e5c0c1afb4f0%7Ce417b280-5666-4488-90c5-572cc6a7466f    I found the strategic Pyramide as a Guideline for visual Branding.

There are 4 stages:

brand personality: In this first stage are all values, visions and communication through the whole Company involved.  Furthermore there should be considered employee Actions, product offering and Connection to the customer.

product attributes: Based on the first stage you sum up all the positive aspects of your product and put it into visual. It should describe what the product is about and also the uniqueness of your product.

design principles: are the directions and objectives a designer can follow while designing a brand.

Signature elements: are series of toolkits used in creating and translating the visual brand. for example:Color, material, logo, Slogan, light etc.

 

 

According to Thomas Gad it is important to use metaphors. A metaphor is a shortcut to the unconscious mind, which are quite often viusal ( could also be auditory). We use methaphors constantly in our everyday´s life. It could be a single word, sentences, expressions. You can influence People in thinking in a new direction. Your methapor don´t have to be clear, it should leave place for creativity of your target Group.