Reading Response: Designing a Brand Identity

Thoughts & Ideas:

• Perception --> Behavior --> Performance
• Ideals in designing a brand identity; vision, meaning, coherence, differentiation, commitment, sustainability, authenticity, flexibility, and value
• Vision requires leadership
• Brand identity needs to be a top-down initiative
• Designers need to access to the vision
• Design anticipates and visualizes the future
• Meaning; is distilled, is assigned, builds consensus, evolves over time
  
  

Application of design imperatives;

1. Seize every opportunity to manage perception
2. Create a unified visual language
3. Start thinking about launch strategy
4. Create balance between consistency and flexibility
5. Produce real applications before finalizing standards
6. Work on the highest-visibility applications first
7. Know when to identify outside experts for collaboration
8. Use spreadsheets to keep track of numerous applications
9. Never show any application without showing alignment with brand strategy
10. Be obsessive about quality
11. Gather notes during this phase for standards and guidelines
    
    

Application of design essentials;

1. Convey the brand personality
2. Align with positioning strategy
3. Create a point of view and a look and feel
4. Make it work across all media
5. Demonstrate understanding of the target customer
   
6. Differentiate, differentiate, differentiate.
   
   

Design Development Basics;

1. Design is an iterative process between the big picture and minutiae
2. Designing real applications and the identity system are simultaneous
3. Ensure that all assumptions are achievable (Remember our budget!)
   
4. Be open to additional discovery as it gets more real
5. God is in the details
   
   

Signage Design Process;
(this list can be applied to the creation of other artifacts that will be produced for the symposium)

1. Establish goals
2. Build project team
3. Conduct research
   
4. Establish project criteria
5. Schematic design
6. Design development
7. Documentation
   
8. Fabrication and maintenance