 |
The
Brand Story
People often believe that brand identity is simply a logo or a name. Well, there have been cases in which the company is known by the logo and not vice-versa. A brand is the voice and image of a company; it is how a brand speaks to its audience.
The Name Behind the Brand
Naming a brand is the first step of its linguistic identity process and is critical to its communication story.
5 Attributes of a Great Brand Name
1. The Story:
Not all brands require names that explicitly spell out their product
or service, but they do need a story behind it that helps generate curiosity
and increase its recall value. The name could be cryptic, yet interesting enough,
to make the audience want to find out more.
2. Size: Shorter the name, the better. A long name could be difficult to translate
visually and forgotten before you can say “Jack Robinson”.
3. Domain name.com: With every possible combination of letters
of five syllables being exhausted, availability of domain names have become unfeasible.
A lot of successful websites have relied on dropping letters or deliberately
misspelling words, which is quite a trend nowadays. Finding a domain name has
become more significant than the name itself.
4. Verbal Communication: A good brand name is easy to remember if it’s easy to
pronounce. It also extends the tone (humorous/somber) throughout the brand communication.
5. Visual Application:The linguistic identity should be easily
translatable into visual identity and extendable across all media. Even for a
TV channel or a Twitter account for that matter.
The Face of the Brand
If you’ve got the name right, designing a fitting logo could still be quite challenging.
5 Attributes of Great Visual Identity
1. The Idea: Other than typing out your logo in a neat font, it should communicate
a certain facet or story behind the name, which makes it interesting and more
memorable.
2. The Graphic: Not all brands require a visual icon, depending on what
it needs to project. Having a visual cleverly hidden within the typography is
one way to go, which keeps it clean yet attention-grabbing at the same time.
Again, colours should be kept minimal and should be scalable to the smallest
size required.
3. Font and Size: Typography plays the role of setting a certain
tone/quality of the brand. Some logos use type alone when the name is reasonably
distinctive or when the name itself stands as an icon. The size, quite often
neglected, can create havoc if not scaled in proportion with the symbol. Having
a more landscape proportion of the logo is preferred as opposed to a vertical
frame.
4. Simple is Practical: Minimal and clean is the way to go.
This makes sure the logo can be printed even when scaled to extremely small proportions
and works equally well in black on white or the other way round.
5. Distinctive: The logo should stand up and against the names
of your competitors and be relevant in space your brand occupies.
Of course, no matter how great the name or logo of the brand is, the actually
identity of the brand really depends on how well the brand generates the value
it promises to deliver. But if the brand does manage to live up to its name,
it would be nice to remember what the name was in the first place.
References
www.identityworks.com
| |
 |
Packaging
design and “thinking outside the box”
Welcome to the world of packaging, where designers constantly
struggle to balance aesthetics with safety and practicality.
Gone |
are the days when everything was thrown into one
brown box. Today your package could be any shape, colour or material, limited
only by your imagination. Packaging is no longer about just holding a product,
it’s there to sell it.
Of course, the primary purpose of packaging is still as a container. However, with the fact that it’s necessary, comes the realization that we might as well use it to promote the product inside. After all, it’s what the customer first sees. This is why now designers need to consider not just how the product might fit inside a package, but also how it presents itself on the shelf. Packaging design is now big business, no longer an afterthought for a product cycle, but truly a part of it.
It goes without saying that the packaging has to protect your product wherever it may go. Right from after the birth of the product in the factory till it finds a place in the consumer’s home, the packaging must constantly be at work.
For some products the priority is to provide packaging that is as cheap and as practical as possible, with no additional thrills. Flat pack furniture is a perfect example. The consumer doesn’t come into contact with the packaging until after they have made their purchase, therefore their decision is totally unaffected by it.
In contrast, with other products, the packaging could be there purely to convince people to buy your brand over theirs. Most people will agree that the major brands of mineral water all taste more or less similar, so after price, the next thing the consumer will look at is the packaging. Their decision might be swayed by anything from the shape of the bottle, the type of cap used or the graphics applied.
Once you have convinced someone to part with their money, your package has another task ahead of it. It might have gained you the customer for this purchase, but now it has a chance to shine, to retain that buyer’s loyalty for the future. It’s no use selling someone a pretty bottle of water, only for them to turn to the competition after they realize it’s useless for drinking out of. Even a seemingly grey box can have innovative solutions that help the user. Something as simple as a foldable tab in a cereal box can ensure that the product stays fresh for longer, and fits more neatly into their cupboard. It is small things like this that convince the consumer that you care and are prepared to go that little bit extra for them. And the best part is, it might not even cost you extra.
Making your care for the customer evident, even after the purchase of the product, is something that packaging designers often forget about. This is crucial. Following a much anticipated product purchase, you can create an anti-climax before the consumer even gets their hands on it. Ask any parent who has had to suffer through a child’s birthday, with their little one jumping around in anticipation as they battle away at the plastic blister packaging just to get to that cheekily smiling action figure. How about an office worker losing his dignity while gnawing away at his new headset, desperate to get it plugged in so he can make that important transatlantic call before the deadline passes?
Why shrink wrapped? Wasn’t it enough that he had to chew through the tape which incarcerated his new purchase within a cardboard box filled with polystyrene shapes?
The new buzz word in packaging is “frustration-free”, meaning that the user should not have to suffer to access whatever they have purchased. This, along with environmentally friendly packaging, constitutes what a majority of consumers are starting to look for while making purchases. Amazon.com has compromised on flashiness and has introduced boxes that are much easier to open. This has proved to be a huge success.
Packaging represents a product and its values. So putting a natural, organic soap in a plastic case would alienate customers by contradicting the message it’s trying to send out. People will choose products based on what they stand for and packaging has unavoidably become a part of the products we purchase. It’s crucial to get the balance of factors correct in order to give yourself and your customer the best deal possible. Packaging has to be given enough thought and resources to correctly portray your company’s philosophy, attitude and brand identity, as well as the product within.
For examples of great packaging, check out
-
www.thedieline.com
|
| |
 |
Stationery,
on the move
Before
we begin to dive into why office stationery is so important
and why it is so vital to your company, perhaps it is
best if we go about defining what exactly it means. |
Office stationery is not
just the pens, pencils, envelopes etc. that you find in an office,
it is a term that is used for all those pens, pencils, envelopes
etc. that are representative of your office. To put it incredibly
bluntly, office stationery refers to the stationery that has
your company’s presence on it.
Of course, now this automatically provokes the question of how stationery can be so vital to your company’s image. This will perhaps be most enunciated by looking at business cards. This form of office stationery serves as a mini advertisement that you can carry around in your wallet. When you give your card out to other people, then your company is most likely to be judged on the basis of that tiny piece of paper. Hence, your business card ceases to be just something with your contact details on it and, in that context, becomes the entire face of your organization. And just like any effective advertisement, the card must delight as well as inform. A well designed card will immediately put your company in good light and will find a place in the individual’s wallet or in the hefty card holder people like to show off with. A shoddy job is more likely to make your card intimate with used chewing gum. Every single element that constitutes your card is important. The colours, fonts, quality of paper, size, shape, etc. Treat it like an advertisement and in all probability, it will function like a good ad should.
The same goes for letterheads. An apt letterhead can make quite the impression on people. Here as well, elements such as design and quality of paper play a vital role. An appropriate, well designed masthead will have an incredible impact on how your company is perceived. However, like everything else, appropriateness is critical. For example, a corporate letterhead will be more sober and try to evoke an air of seriousness, where as a toy company can afford to be more playful and experiment with the design.
Office stationery isn’t something that should be taken lightly. Even seemingly trivial things such as pens and pencils can go a considerable distance. The effectiveness of your office stationery, which is the degree to which it makes an impact on the recipient, is directly proportional to the quality of the material.
But like everything else, moderation is essential. It would seem ridiculous to start spending exorbitant amounts on pens and pencils. Or to start spending a lot of money on the finest of paper. The bottom line is that your office stationery must match the image that your company is trying to achieve. Once that is done, your business will have a relatively smoother ride in the rocky world.
Brand Identity & Stationery for Mysore Maharaajas created
by Rezonant
To see some great examples of office stationery visit: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/20/effective-business-card-design-better-than-a-plain-ol-business-card/
|
|
News
Japanese Pharma giant, Eisai, is setting-up their new plant in
India and Rezonant is honored to have bagged the project
Next issue
What you see
around you in office can help set
your energy levels for the day.
Feedback
Like, dislike rezound? Let us know here. |
|
| |
 |
Kromia
Brand Identity |
 |
9inc,
a group holding company that manufactures several printing products,
wanted to brand their new printing ink product range.
The Linguistic
Identity
Kromia is the name that was finally approved. Kromia
falls under the category of experimental names. It is seemingly
literal in nature, but is contorted with a touch of imagination.
Chrome, coined in 1797 comes from the Greek word “Khroma”.
It denotes colour, because of its ability to make multicoloured
compounds. Kromia is a derivation of this word.
For centuries,
Colours have fascinated the human mind. Different colours trigger
different emotions in people. And the appropriate colours had
to be used to create the logo.
The logo is derived the name itself. The use of fluid patterns,
as seen above, is extended across anything that is associated
with the brand. This ensures that the brand is uniform in the
mood it evokes, irrespective of the material.
The Visual Identity
As the name suggests, the visual was required to deal with a
blending of colours. The icon is meant to look like a drop
of ink. It is composed of swirls of colours fusing together
to form the drop. Colours cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK),
represent the printing ink colours.
The formation of the drop in monotone and colour.
The visual compliments and integrates itself with the name easily.
This results in a high recall value. It perfectly and most effectively
replaces the ‘O’ in the name.
Research has proven that the human eye registers symmetrical
objects/visuals immediately and this works completely in the
favour of Kromia.
|
|
|