Thankfully this was Design Series 1. Which means there’s more to come. It was a sell-out, there were prizes, the Carr-Kids ate all the food. But more importantly, the event was insightful and valuable. The new book Logo Savvy is all about the process of brand development, and the creation of three of the brands featured in the book were presented by their leads.
It turned out that the three firms featured have very different processes, but each was strong and defensible. Overhearing people talk, it seemed like it was an encouraging thing to hear. Find what works for you, follow it, and stand by it.
Photos are available on our Flickr page here, and a video of the presentations is available here.
Dan from WOW Branding advocated getting into a brand and wearing it. They take concepts like Lift Restaurant to the public as though they already exist with questions and a video camera, talk about them informally with friends. Then present just the best idea (although with his case, WOW couldn’t make its mind up between two itself) to the client and asking them to live with it themselves a few days before deciding.
Mark of Hornell Anderson Design Works presented a rush project, EOS airlines. In the project they focussed on positioning, getting sign-off on the direction, and then working and working the mark to get pull a strong concept into a beautiful form. From there further work was done to extend the brand, with several possible directions simultaneously explored.
In contrast to the naming and branding projects at WOW and Hornell Anderson, a refresh of Vancity made James’ presentation inherently different. The client had a strong set of constraints and Karacters started with a thorough audit of the marketplace, both locally (co-ops), nationally, and internationally, presented at least a half-dozen options ranging in formality, and then took elements from the chosen mark to extend through the brand.
There were also a few common things. At least two of the presentations featured mood boards, putting the logo, even just the name, into environments early on to see how it performed, and spending time with names and shapes to see how they settled. In all cases the strength of the idea pushed through the entire brand, but it was the name and mark that ultimately was the first piece and consequent cornerstone.
It was great to see the variety in high-level approach to problem solving, the often common tools used to move the project forward, and the degree to which the situation and the client informed the client interaction, despite the obvious philosophical differences between the Creative Directors. It was also great to see how positioning and market needs were considered as integral throughout each process.
November 16th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
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