In Part I of his blog, “Why now could be a good time to revisit your branding,” TRG’s Mike Shefky explored the need to study your company brand from the inside out. Consider what visual elements correlate with the brand you’re putting out there in Part II of his blog series.
Addressing the messaging and voice behind your brand should be priority one in any comprehensive branding initiative. Once confidence in the internal messaging is gained, move on to addressing the visual identity of the brand. While there will always be a measure of subjectivity in visual taste, you can still follow a few of the guiding principles in the assessment process.
- Ensure your brand remains consistent with modern aesthetics. Have a look around the internet. Pay attention to companies within your own industry, but also get a feel for what brands are popular among your target audience and demographic groups. Then assess your own visual ID pieces accordingly (logo, color scheme, website, collateral, packaging, etc.).
- Properly assess any change: subtle vs. overt. Many organizations find that their brand visuals need just a bit of tweaking to bring them more in step with modern design trends and preferred consumer tastes. However, some discover they are holding on to identifying imagery that has long sense become outdated. It’s important to know there is no hard and fast rule about how much, if any, change is required to a brands visual identity. So, it’s often best practice to consult with a trusted designer or two to gain their professional opinions – then add them to your own.
Bottom line, some pragmatic businesses are taking advantage of the unique position they find themselves in to either refine, or in some cases completely redefine, their brand. Then when the economy bounces back, they’ll be ready to capitalize with a well-positioned, smartly-executed brand.
When you’re ready to evolve the creative behind your own brand’s design, consider following the best practices as followed by the design team at TRG Marketing.
