Branding : Explained

branding :explained Branding is one of the oldest design traits still used today, becoming more and more important, in an industry welcoming styles on a daily basis. The earliest records of branding data back as early as the 1200s, where farmers began branding their livestock, so the public knew who they belong to, a reletavily simple task, considering now branding makes or breaks a company.

So what is branding? Firslty we have to know what a brand on its own is. A brand is the figure of trust between the company and the user, how a brand is perceived, deterimens its success, be it a start up or established one. Once we have a brand, we have to develop its identity; brand identity is a tangible comodity, it fuels recognition, exaggerates differentiation and makes big ideas acessible. Therefore branding is a discipline, in which one has to seize every oppertunity to show why their brand is better than the competitors.

Branding a company or individual goes beyond simply designing an ident (logo), branding goes much deeper than that. Be it a website, menu, accesoriess or a multude of other things, branding goes through everything related to the relevant company or individual.

The images shown, taken from Alex Martineau’s ‘Denver Bicycle Cafe’ branding outcome, will explain how this process is applied.

Here we have the final logo for the ‘Denver Bicycle Cafe’, a design which Martineau wasnt going to use. When it comes to branding, the importance lies in communicating the brands ethics, rather than the design itself. The logo combines biking, coffee/beer and its location, displayed through iconic imagery related too each, making the message as clear as day. The logo is the primary image for the brand, in many ways the most important, so seeing it on the front window of the restaurant is no suprise.

Here we can see how the all important ident is used on absolutely everything within the cafe; business cards, coasters, menu’s etc. Its important to plaster the brands ident everywhere so it spreads around, and becomes more recognisable, as Martineau says the most important thing that an ident should do is “Ultimately, that it communicates the brand well. It is recognisable and essentially portrays the brand visually”. The aesthetic represented through the ident; the colours, fonts and feel are also going to be present throughout any other promotional material, meaning the decision behind ‘just’ the ident, will effect everything else. Also opening up the possibility for brand architecture within the ident can be very handy, if their are ideas for expanding the brand, beyond one area of bussiness, such as FedEx.

“Ultimately, that it communicates the brand well. It is recognizable and essentially portrays the brand visually.” Alex Martineau

Branding :brand recognition

IntroductionBranding ident’s (logos) are one of the most important features of a brands identity. They build trust, provide a link between the company/individual and its audience as well as being the go to definition of the company/individual. Therefore making the brands ident as recognisable as possible is somewhere at the top of the list, when designers begin making them.

What I want to find out is, how recognisable these brands really are, be it Coca Cola or a less known brand such as Target. How far engraved are they in us, how far can they be stripped back and distorted before they become unrecognisable (or will they?). Having created minimalist (abstract) takes of some of the worlds most famous brands, over a range of sectors, then showing them to a group of people, I want to know...

Does the brand still exist?

Right10%

90%

Coca Cola

05

kodak

wrongRight

45%55%

07

Marlboro

Right20%

80%

09

Burger King

Right20%

80%

11

Google

50%50%

Wrong

Right

13

95%

pepsi

Right5%

95%

15

BMW m3

Right65%

35%

17

Amazon

Right25%

75%

19

BBC

Right75%

25%

21

Nintendo

Right75%

25%

23

Atari

Right20%

80%

25

hewelett Packard

Right15%

85%

27

Harley Davidson

Right50%50%

29

Subway

45%55%

Wrong

Right

31

HBO

20%80%

Wrong

Right

33

Ebay

65%35%

Wrong

Right

35

NBC

50%50%

Wrong

Right

37

Apple

65%35%

Wrong

Right

39

Target

65%35%

Wrong

Right

41

Royal Air Force

50%50%

Wrong

Right

43

LG

80%20%

Wrong

Right

45

Ebay

65%35%

Wrong

Right

47

OXfam

85%15%

Wrong

Right

49

Lego

70%30%

Wrong

Right

51

Adobe

Right10%

90%

53

Bic

Right55%

45%

55

Cartoon Network

Right45%

55%

57

T-Mobile

65%35%

Wrong

Right

59

Eurosport

70%30%

Wrong

Right

61

Cisco

35%65%

Wrong

Right

63 Participants Results 20 different participants, of different backgrounds and ages took part in this test, resulting in an array of different results. Each participant was shown the exact same collection of idents, in the same order for the same amount of time, with their first answer being the one chosen. The infographic holds the participant data, starting from the center outwards, from Aloy to James, showing how many of the 30 different idents the participant got right.

aloy helen kay andrew quarina jit jamie anh tavis Ash

Ash Alba Jack Piper taavi Rachey james George Jay James

right

Wrong

technology 23%

computing 6%

consumer 23%analysingvariablesIgniame verum, odic te nullor aliquia spernatem eum quisit omnis ius vellorecum rest pa dolum erorruptae ommolup tatiat faccae sandem. Ovid qui nonseque quos el excepel ectium facessit, offic te consequam consequi te pos quamet labor re laut rerro molumqui dolore nulpa quidest otatem et hic tectibe ataqui vent ium es alit, se et quas nonsequae est lacea dusam, velestem illores as vel inctem aut expel exerunt volupta pore, sus eseditatent, cusdam, none con preritat.Cae etur, et plitate aciet recus milland erspedi omnihil isquisciist quia verum nis ut essi a commo explametur, quas cori con paruntia pla ad modigenditat eicit maioriat.Id mo et reperro totatiosto et dolorit maiore etur ratum harcimin postemo loreresedis eum explati coressum veles ipsanto qui dita conem rest molupta eperovid et hario veliquiae et eium faccatusanis modici nissi rem im archillit hariorehene re officia sunt hit ex esto eaqui comnis simperum

food 16%

entertainment 30%

single colour identsMulti colour idents

participants born in the 80s participants born in the 90s

minimalist ident designsabstract ident designs

female participantsmale participants

ConclusionLooking back at Carsten Nicolai’s Work you straight away notice a few things; Complexion, Sound and Theory. These three traits are what I wanted to bring across with this experiment called “Sound Visualised”. The concept behind this project is to develop and progress some of the already existing research Nicolai has uptaken when it comes to sound visualisation. Nicolai’s work tends to attempt to visualise sound in a number of ways be it through digital work or analog, and the same happens when working as his alter ego ‘Alva Noto’; with him supporting his music visually, and his music supporting his visuals.

Thats why I wanted to attempt to visualise a number of musical genres to their core. This experiment got me to look at synthesesia, the meaning of colour to create visuals that were generated by the ‘audio’, that for once would be represented by print.

These are the results of my experiments...