Lesson 1: The Importance of Good Branding & Design

From an article on About.com by Laura Lake:

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers."

Therefore it makes sense to understand that branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, but it is about getting your prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem.

The objectives that a good brand will achieve include:

- Delivers the message clearly
- Confirms your credibility
- Connects your target prospects emotionally
- Motivates the buyer
- Concretes User Loyalty

Read the rest of the article here

Because a company's logo is so important to identifying it's brand, what are some of the essential elements we need to consider when beginning the logo design process? Graphic designer David Airey provides some great tips on his blog, LogoDesignLove Carefully read and consider the points raised in the article.

After you've read David Airey's post, take a look at these "20 unique, memorable, and creative logos designed by talented artists from all over the world" collected on toxel.com

In this short clip we see some top design industry professionals apply these principles of branding and logo design to meet their client's needs - and they show how to do it under extreme deadline pressure!



Now that you understand a bit about the importance of good branding and logo design you're ready to begin working your way through the process!

Step 1 - Divide into groups and choose who will be the leader, who will be the reporter, and who will be the recorder (the recorder will be responsible writing all the notes in the group's binder). The other group members are the group's cheerleaders.

Spend 5 minutes determining your roles.

Step 2 - Your group is about to start a corporation and together you must choose what type of industry it will be from the list below. Discuss the options and vote on only ONE type of industry!

Agriculture and Prepared Foods

Transportation

Arts & Entertainment

Pharmaceutical

Banking & Investment

Hi Tech & Consumer Electronics

Spend 10 minutes on this step.

Step 3 - Once you have voted on what your company's business will be, choose an animal that you feel would most effectively represent the company's products or services as a company mascot. For example, "Eagle Airlines" or "Tiger Investments". You may choose a real animal or mythological creature as your corporate mascot. Remember, everyone in the group must discuss, vote and choose only ONE animal for the whole group!

Spend 10 minutes discussing and choosing an animal mascot.

Step 4 - Once the entire group has agreed on an industry and an animal mascot, its time to discuss as many details as possible about what it is your company does. Remember everything we discussed and learned about branding. Your company description should include...

1.What products and/or services do you offer? Define the qualities of these services and/or products.

2. What are the core values of your products and services? What are the core values of your company?

3. What is the mission of your company?

4. What does your company specializes in?

5. Who is your target market? Who do your products and services attract?

6. What is the tagline of your company? What message does your tagline send to your prospects?

Spend 15 minutes on this exercise.

Step 5 - Each group in turn will stand up and the group's reporter will present the new company to the rest of the class, explaining who and what they are. Once we've gone all the way around the room, each group will hand off their binder to the group to their right. That group will now be their design firm, commissioned to design a company logo for their "client" that effectively describes the client's brand identity.

Step 6 In the time remaining (and for homework) each team member should begin working on rough thumbnail sketches, as we saw in the youtube video. Plan to do research online and/or in the library. Make copies of existing company logos you find that are representative of the client's competitors. Research images of the client's mascot animal and do at least three sketches of the animal (may be realistic, stylized, symbolic or cartoony).

Be ready to present rough sketches to the client at the beginning of the next class for review, feedback and assessment.