Chapter 11 Part 2: Visual Identity

Goals of a Visual Identity

Ideally, a visual identity communicates meaning, adds value, is relevant to its target audience, and should be: 1. Identifiable: The shapes and forms are identifiable and decipherable 2. Memorable: The shapes, forms, and colors are sufficiently coherent, interesting and unusual 3. Distinctive: The name, shapes, forms, and colors are uniquely characteristics to that entity and differentiate it from the competition 4. Sustainable: The name, shapes, form, and colors would endure, be relevant for a period of years 5. Flexible / Extendable: The name, shapes, forms, and colors are flexible to work across media, to grow with the entity's new services, and to adapt to brand extensions and sub-brands

Logo Categories

- A logo can take various forms and combinations; it can be a wordmark, lettermark, symbol mark, combination mark, or emblem - Some categories of logos include the following: 1. Logotype (also called wordmark) 2. Lettermark 3. Symbol - Pictorial symbol, abstract symbol, nonrepresentational or nonobjective symbol, letterform sysmbol 4. Character icon 5. Combination Mark 6. Emblem

Logo Visualization

- A logo has to tell a story; it must communicate meaning - clearly express a voice, communicate an essence - Some fundamental ways of depicting shapes or forms for the purpose of visualization include: Elemental form, high contrast, linear, volumetric, texture or pattern

What is a Logo?

- A logo is the single graphic design application that will be a part of every other brand design application - It carries enormous weight and significance and is the keystone of any graphic design plan - A logo is a unique identifying symbol - More often, a logo is part of a broader identity design project

Creating Coherence

- A program of strategic, unified, and integrated solutions for a brand or group results in harmonious brand experiences for its audience - Considerations for establishing visual and verbal coherence are strategy, look and feel, and clarity - For the visual/verbal coherence, common components across brand applications are: 1. Strategy 2. Logo 3. Tagline 4. Look and feel 5. Color or color palette

Letterhead Design

- As always, any design is based on a design concept - Before you begin the design process, determine how the letterhead will be used, if different versions are required, and obtain all required content - While developing the design, you should explore paper samples in order to make your paper and envelope selections, as well as determine the production method so that you can guide your visualization process with production parameters in mind

The Business Card

- Besides television advertisements that come into your living room, a business card is, perhaps, the most intimate design application - Often passed from hand to hand, a business card quickly and directly tells its reader who you are, what you do, with whom you are affiliated, and how to contact you

Designing a Logo

- For branding and logo development, some clients provide a brand brief, a document defining the brand essence, the construct, what the brand represents - Generating design concepts for a logo depends, in part, on a designer's ability to compress and condense meaning and complexity into one small unit, a unit that will have endure for years (if not decades), function, and be integral to every visual communication for the entity - Start with the name. Because of their creative nature, invented and symbolic names more easily lends themselves to visualization than do founder's names - Similarly, some names point to intuitive solutions, where the name itself could inherently solve the logo problem - A visual brief collage board is a visual way of determining strategy and a construct; also called a visual positioning collage - It will help you visualize the entity's essence, personality, color palette, and how all that might be compressed into a unit - 2 main goals during conceptualization, visualization, and composition are to meaningfully differentiate the brand and to do so in a form that has impact - As a compositional unit, a logo must be independent, able to stand on its own, since it is incorporated into many other applications - Some formats include self-contained unit, breaking the unit and free-form

Letterhead

- Formal business tool used for many purposes, official or legal - Printed on a sheet of fine paper or viewed as a digital page includes specific content and is part of a broader visual identity system with consistent elements - A core application of any visual identity or branding program

Identity Standards

- Graphic designers create standards for the use of identity design and logo on all applications to ensure consistency and logo on all applications to ensure consistency and logo recognition across media. - Consistent use guarantees immediate recognition in a cluttered commercial environment and ensures integrity of meaning

Logo Color and Type

- Many brands are synonymous with the color or color palette of their visual identities - Color contributes to distinction and influencing people's brand perception - Choosing a typeface for a logo should be done for its form, appropriateness, and expressive potential, with knowledge of both the denotative meaning and the connotative meaning (heritage, voice, expressive meaning) of the face

Identity Standards for Business Cards

- Standard content guidelines usually include: Individual's name, job title, unit or department name, address or office location, phone and fax numbers, e-mail address(es), web address - To include more information or graphics, some design a 2-sided card, utilizing the reverse side - Establishing coherence entails creating identity standards and then employing them consistently

The Purpose of Visual Identity

- The basic purpose of visual identity is the same as a branding program - to identify, differentiate, and build a sustainable presence and position in the marketplace, as well as to engender trust in the brand or group - The keystone of any visual identity is a logo, a unique identifying symbol

Designing Visual Identity

- The design concept is conceived with a brand's or group's core value/quality and significance (as manifested in a brand construct, a quality or position a brand "owns" against the competition), visually communicated through its logo and visual identity - A logo tells a focused visual story - meaning is distilled and then compressed into a unit

Letterhead Design Components

Components of a letterhead program can include: General letterhead and general envelope, executive letterhead and executive envelope, digital letterhead, fax cover sheet, contracts, invoices, memos, mailing labels

Logo

Single graphic design application that will be part of every other brand design application. It is keystone of any visual identity; a unique identifying symbol

Business Card

Printed or digital surface - a small rectangle - on which a person's name, business affiliation, and contact information are printed

Visual Identity

The visual and verbal articulation of a brand or group, including all pertinent design applications, such as the logo, letterhead, business card, and website, among other applications; also called brand identity, branding, and corporate identity