9 Principles For Great Branding By Design - By Mark McNeilly
- Branding and design are, to a large extent, inseparable.
"A brand is not your logo or ID system," says Brunner. "It's a gut
feeling people have about you. When two or more people have the same
feeling, you have a brand. You get that feeling via smart design, which
creates the experiences people have with the brand. Everything you do
creates the brand experience, ergo design IS your brand."
- If design is the brand, stop thinking of branding and design as distinct disciplines.
"It's all about integrating design and brand," says Doucet. "We need to
cease thinking of them as different disciplines. The essence of the
Apple brand comes through its design. Take the logo off a BMW and you
still know it's a BMW."
- Brands need to create an emotional relationship with people.
"We are all emotional beings and we have emotional relationships with
brands we trust," says Brunner. "Designers need to make that happen. A
designer must take the values and assets of a company and transform
them in a special way that connects with people emotionally."
- Designers need to "get" the essence of the brand.
"For designers to build a great brand, they have to understand it,"
Hill points out. "You need to understand its history, its values, and
what it means to people. Can you imagine designing the latent Jeep
without understanding the brand archetype of what it means for a product
to be a Jeep?"
- Design needs to be strategic from the outset.
"For design to have a major impact, it's got to get involved at the
strategic level," said Hill. "It can't be an afterthought or superficial
trappings to be put on post product creation. Samsung's brand became
powerful only after they put a Chief Design Officer in place and made it
a priority for the company."
- Integrate design early in the process to drive innovation and create solutions. "Good
designers approach design as an opportunity to ask questions," says
Doucet. "Solution generation starts by questioning initial assumptions.
Rather than ask myself 'How should I design Widget X?' I need to be
asking 'Do we really need Widget X or is there a better solution to this
customer problem? So a designer needs be there at the beginning and be
connected to the decision-makers. For example, at Braun, Dieter Rams sat
across from the owner of the company."
- Don't overdesign.
"With the increasing emphasis on design in the world today, it's
important to avoid the 'over-designed syndrome,'" says Hill. "A simple,
well-thought-through, authentic design is often the best. Everything
doesn't need to be redesigned; sometimes what we have in hand is better
than what we seek. It's not all about being different; it's about being
better. If Levi Strauss wanted me to redesign the patch on the back of
their jeans, I would look in their archives for the original."
- Use design to continually reinvent the brand.
"Some folks think they know branding," says Doucet. "Figured it out
long ago. 'Hi. I'm someone you'll like. You'll know it's me because I
always wear a red polo shirt (pantone 185 to be exact) with blue pants
and a yellow belt.' You can't think that way today. Brands need to allow
themselves to constantly update, and be much more fluid. Look at
Google; they morph their logo for special occasions. Constant change is a
big part of who they are."
- Use design to make a difference.
"Design can make a difference in how we live," says Brunner. "Take
sustainability. A lot of what is done in that area is 'making bad,
better.' We're taking wasteful things and seeing how we can make them
not so bad. We need to start thinking about how we can use our design
tools to encourage people to change. You do that by making 'doing
better' also be fun, interesting and (importantly) the path of least
resistance. And you do it in an encouraging, not controlling, way.
Design needs to do that in order to reach a larger audience than just
the small group that is socially driven.
-Blogger Mark McNeilly, Fast Company
