In this article I am going to be talking about logos, brand identity, wedding cakes & doughnuts.

Let’s set a scenario for a moment… A new business owner has a great new product or service that he or she aims to sell. They have a brilliant idea, know exactly who they are going to sell it to and where it is going to be sold. The competition has been analysed and the price has been set. The only task they have left to achieve is to let the target audience know that the product or service is available. This is achieved by creating an appropriate brand identity that is in line with the aims of the business, and of course by marketing the said identity.

Brand Identity
What is it? Well, it’s more than just a name or a logo. A brand identity encompasses everything that you visually associate with a brand. It’s the McDonald’s golden arches, the sleek & sexy packaging of Apple & even the fantastic gorilla TV advertisement by Cadbury’s. If it can help you identify a brand name, then it is part of the brand identity.

Thousands of new start-up businesses every single day face the task of creating a great brand identity that will not only give them a competitive advantage but also show that they are professional. This is achieved through effective visual communication created by designers.

Common practice for each identity project is for a designer or design team to be employed and provided with a design brief. It will outline the strategy of the business, their aims and objectives, what makes them different, the type of perceived image they are trying to create and the characteristics of the target audience. Plus a lot more. It is then the role of the design team to achieve the aims of the brief.

Now that we have that cleared up, I can finally talk about the main point of this article.

Backwards Branding
A new technique, developed mainly through the advancement of the Internet, is to do the whole process backwards. Some websites have appeared that allow start-ups to buy brand names coupled with an identity off the shelf, ready-made, sitting in wait for a potential owner.

A new business owner might see a logo/name and think ‘that’s perfect me, I’ll take it’. They buy the logo. Download the necessary files and go on their way slapping the logo on everything they cast their eyes upon. Essentially a happy ending. Or is it?

The Dangers
Let’s set another scenario…. you are getting married and you need a wedding cake made. You want it to fit into the theme of your wedding and look exactly how you want. Where would you go to get such a fantastic cake? Would you go to the local bakery and pick a cheap doughnut that had been sitting in the shop window for days or would you contact a specialist who can discuss your requirements, suggest the best solution based on your needs and create a custom designed cake that achieves everything that you ever dreamed of? If you are serious about your wedding then the custom-designed route is the likely choice.

What I am trying to say is that the danger of buying a ready-made brand is that there is no communication between the designer and the client BEFORE a solution was created. Communication is key during the branding process and removing the design brief stage is dangerous for the following reasons:

1) What came first the logo or the name?
Most ready made brands are nothing more than a named logo. An image is created and a name is slapped onto it. Eg. ChikenEgg! or BatFish! Would any professional business really use a brand name like that?

2) Plagiarism
There have been numerous cases of ready-made logos being direct copies of existing logos or at the very least heavily inspired. Remember, a successful & effective logo/brand should be unique.

3) Longivity
Is the purchased brand name really right for you? There is a danger of being impressed by an image associated with a name, but does it represent your future values? What about in the future as the business grows?

So there you have it. Logos, brand identity, wedding cakes & doughnuts all in one article. As a disclaimer I respect bakers & doughnut makers worldwide and in no way respect the work that they do.

It was never anything that made you stop in your tracks and admire, but it was obviously one of those branding exercises where the client wanted everything to be bright to hook you in, because apparently people are attracted to bright things? Or is that magpies? Anyway, I can always remember the bright blue store fronts and cheekily sitting on the comfortable sofas that they had on show to rest my legs. (You know you’ve done it.)
If you have picked up a catalogue recently or visited their website then you might have noticed that it looks a little different. Yes, they have changed their identity:

It’s red. It’s happy. And it’s safe. Very safe actually, and a little bland if I am honest. I find it quite interesting that the online equivalent, Amazon, also use a smile in their logo, but supporters of Argos will tell you that the Argos logo has been smiling long before Amazon ever came to be. It will be interesting to see who will have the last laugh, as I can’t help but think that online shopping has put a dent in Argos’ fat cats pockets. I wonder how long it will be until we have Amazon stores on the high street?

Keep smiling. Argos style.

Is it fatter or shorter? I will let you decide. However, the most notable change is the removal of the words “Music Television” from the logo showing that MTV obviously thinks they have been around long enough for them to lose the descriptor, a tactic also employed by the likes of huge multinationals Nike, Apple & McDonald’s. Also, notice the clipping mask of random images for the background? Looks like the Aolesque™ trend is really kicking in now, but that’s for another article.

You can read more on the new MTV brand over at Rolling Stone

The new brand is said to have brought the image of Pepsi into the 21st century but has been met with some fierce criticism from the design community. Some have suggested the new logo is of reference to the recent Barack Obama electorial campaign, whilst others claim to see the gut of an obese man, bulging over his jeans. Is that a subtle way of getting the attention of the target audience?

Further observation got me thinking about the famous competition between Pepsi and their rivals, Coca-Cola. Obviously red is the main corporate colour of coca-cola, whilst Pepsi has predominently used blue during its history. I found that the new logo could be perceived to look like a pie chart representing the market share of the two soft drinks giants, with Coca-Cola being the top dog, and Pepsi falling slightly behind.

What do you think of the new Pepsi logo?