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Clear Conceptual Direction Helps Build Strong Brand Communication
The best identity marks emerge from clear & strong conceptual direction that is related to “essence� aspects of the identity construct. Connection to authenticity and integrity are vitally important in brand communication.
Contemporary art - Southern Albert Art Gallery’s exhibition category - is as much about the idea as it is the object. Ideas emerge through art. There is always more that emerges.
For those who can't easily read the copy:
AT THE PRAIRIE'S END, above the undulating buffalo grass, the mountains emerge—sentinels gazing into the rising sun and the endless skies. Our new logo emerges from this place where the rivers hide in coulees, and the shadows stretch forever. This place, where even Winter cannot withstand the winds, is Alberta.
Our logo is inspired by Southern Alberta's vast landscape, and the open minds and hearts of its people. When our audiences experience the art in our galleries, they discover that their interior landscapes stretch as far and as wide as our Alberta skies. We invite you to explore a place without boundaries, the Southern Alberta Art Gallery.
This identity mark – which was designed by DOXA's Ryan Slone – is rooted in both the processes that drive contemporary art and in the landscape within which SAAG exists.
With contemporary art, what is unseen (below the horizon in this case) in meaning terms, is as present through implication as what may be observed.
Tim Walker – the project's art director from DOXA | Total Brand Design – and I co-created this ad to launch SAAG’s new identity and it ran across Canada and internationally in publications targeted at the category.
Often, new marks (especially in a brand-refresh initiative) are introduced to a brand's public without being mediated or set in context. Many people believe that a strong mark should immediately be understood - and it shouldn't require any help.
I don't agree. New logos are like newborn babies because they are thrust into their environments with no equities whatsoever. They mean nothing and it is only over time that they attract meaning and strength. While big budget-fueled ad blazes can accomplish the same strength-formation, consumers are still often scratching their head, trying to figure out what this new face on an old body means.
When smaller nonprofits refresh their identities - or go through an initial launch - helping stakeholders navigate meaning can help a refreshed identity get traction and move an organization's agenda forward.
Posted on November 8, 2006 07:39 AM | Permalink
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Comments
First of all, thanks for mentioning us in your post today. It was an honor to work with you on that project.
Your point about introducing new marks to the public rings so true. In our work in brand design one of the common misconceptions we see held in the public is that logo = brand identity. The truth is logos should be a part of a comprehensive brand visual language, including guidelines for the use of color, shape, textures, typography, etc., and visual language is only a portion of the overall brand language.
Expecting a logo to carry the weight of a brand identity on its own is a dangerous attitude. Too many good logo designs have likely been judged ineffective and perhaps prematurely abandoned or 'improved' when they simply couldn't carry the burden of communicating the attributes of the brand all by themselves. In short, it isn't fair. The magical logo that communicates all of the brand attributes at a moment's glance is an unrealistic myth. As Neill has pointed out, it takes time and other contexts to build up equities. Introductory strategies like this one help catalyze the process.
A good launch strategy for a new brand identity or a redesign is a must, and one shouldn't assume that being on a small budget prevents an organization from being able to do it. There are always strategies to be explored that will fit just about any budget, and the task can be as simple (as with the example Neill has used above) as restating the qualities of the brand back to its stakeholders and presenting them with the solution that they themselves actually led us to through the interviews, research and focus group process. This was their logo and their brand identity. Making the introduction in that instance was, and will remain, one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.
Of course it helps a great deal to have someone like Neill with the ability to roll out an identity by writing an ad with such poetic voice as this one.
So if you ever see two guys in a coffee shop with back to back Powerbooks and notepads, sketches, and the remains of that morning's pastries cluttering the table... don't be too quick to make fun of them. They may trying to do some good for a client.