Recently, Simon went on ‘Ebay’ and found a lister selling a branded ‘Parnall & Sons’ steel back tenon saw. Ca. 1950’s. There are many different types of saws out there in the world, but for this saw alone to be stamped by Parnall’s historic past made Simon connect with it on a more personal level. Thus, making the reason why he bought it in the first place. Amazing what a brand can make you do.
Following from this, I started to look at brands in my daily life. Amazon was the first one that came to mind, then Netflix and YouTube. However, I didn’t want to say much more than that or else you’ll start to judge what I do in my spare time…
On another note, you could do an entire degree on this subject, so I will try my best to articulate my opinion of brand, and why brand is important and how I approach brand to communicated on a visual level.
What I would like to ask is ‘how does a brand become rememberable?’ I look at a few different characteristics to determine this;
Use of colour : e.g. Ikea – use of blue and yellow links to Sweden’s national colours.
Colours can help us on several levels, to be bold, daring, or subtle and discreet. These all formulise an instinctual reaction to when you first see the logo of a company. Making an emotional connection.
Shape : e.g. Apple logo – connections to Galileo using an apple to demonstrate his knowledge. Which links Apples ethos in innovation.
“One Picture is Worth a Thousand Words” this goes for a when we use imagery to present our identity in a logo. You can tell an awful lot when it can by symbolised through a shape.
Simplicity : e.g. Nike – tick symbolising movement and speed which links to exercise.
Over complicating a brand can sometimes makes the message too messy to convey. Always go with “less is more” approach. From experience, to be able to identified a brand from a great distance is a successful brand.
Typography : e.g. Coke Cola’s font – period style to when the company and logo was created in 1885.
Like colour, the use of font is crucial as this portrays the emotion of how you and your brand is distinguished.
Taking all this into consideration this determines how a certain business makes a conscious decision in how they want to be interpreted by their customers, therefore having a strong ethos from the start is important.
How brand emphasises this, can be echoed throughout by applying the brand onto employees. Hence, why most businesses set out for employees to wear a certain type of uniform. This reflects a union, everyone wears the same clothing to support a team working together for the same reasons for the business. Which gives a reassurance to the customers that this brand is trusted and professional.
