Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Beyond the Right Brain: Success through Graphic Design Analysis,
A brand’s ‘identity’ is analogous to a person’s identity: it consists largely of their values, personality and beliefs. The public-facing aspect of a brand reflects its core essence in a tangible and graphic way to audiences. While Marketing seeks to define the vision, strategy and structure of a brand, Graphic Designers are the visual professionals who have the responsibility of translating and marrying the positioning concepts of the brand with its identity into visual media. The more designers are involved in developing the strategy of the brand in synergy with marketing and senior leadership, the more successful the visual identity will be in enhancing customer recognition, acceptance and adoption of the brand.
It is ironic that the skilled activities of graphic designers to join brand positioning, identity and marketing strategy into a cohesive visual representation is exactly what has led to the misperception among the general public that a brand is a logo or advertising or packaging. Advertising and logos are soon forgotten, but the true essence of a brand is what stays with the customer after the visual reminder is no longer present.
Where graphic design (and to a lesser extent, marketing) has been criticized in the past is the lack of business discipline with which it seems to be practiced — it’s always been a “right-brained thing” — I believe differently. I believe there is a need to blend creativity with structure in a whole-brain approach. Going further, the most effective design is created through graphic design analysis based on attributes such as color theory, customer profiling and current trends. This takes the form of a developed research and design methodology to ensure that the necessary reference foundation is established for visual development including:
It is ironic that the skilled activities of graphic designers to join brand positioning, identity and marketing strategy into a cohesive visual representation is exactly what has led to the misperception among the general public that a brand is a logo or advertising or packaging. Advertising and logos are soon forgotten, but the true essence of a brand is what stays with the customer after the visual reminder is no longer present.
Where graphic design (and to a lesser extent, marketing) has been criticized in the past is the lack of business discipline with which it seems to be practiced — it’s always been a “right-brained thing” — I believe differently. I believe there is a need to blend creativity with structure in a whole-brain approach. Going further, the most effective design is created through graphic design analysis based on attributes such as color theory, customer profiling and current trends. This takes the form of a developed research and design methodology to ensure that the necessary reference foundation is established for visual development including:
- Understand the background of the company/product/service as well as customer perceptions of it through market research
- Gain a sense of the overall marketplace and competitive universe
- Develop a profile of the typical customer(s) to understand their lifestyle needs and wants in relation to the company/product/service
- Conduct color and stylistic preference research on the target demographic groups to ensure that the graphic directions that are developed gain acceptance with the target groups
Joseph Mann Wednesday, May 18, 2005
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