When attempting to develop your brand their is more to consider than simply defining yourself by the most widely recognised image currently attached to your product or service.
Though it is common for many institutions to become synonymous with the defining logo or mascot that is presented most often when meeting the consumer head on in the direct market it is important for graphic assets like logos and icons and insignia to become foundations upon which a company can build their brand out from.
If you start with a blue triangle or a red square with your brands monogram etched within its borders you do not want this to be a fixed image with no potential to evolve into other, similar and/or related items, but not precisely the same as your initial marker. It is imperative that you are able to diversify your brand for any foreseeable circumstance, venue or platform that may be suited to your intention for your works future.
One that comes to mind firstly is Google and how they modify their front page logo to suit the various holidays and significant dates throughout the year. In this they maintain the icon and memorable image of the Google name written in bubble letters above their classic search tab. It is a basic and fundamentally simplified example of how one could diversify and extend their brand or image to adapt to a variety of different possible opportunities, and in this is establishes the need for a brand to not only create a sense of iconic familiarity in its image but to also produce a sense of new, fresh or constantly evolving construct to their overall image,
It is true that much of what happens inside a consumers head to determine their spending habits occurs in their subconscious and goes largely unnoticed by the customer up to and after committing to purchase a service or product, but this in no way means that you should be covert or subtle about your tactics or intentions. Quite the contrary,
As most of an individuals spending decisions happen outside the realm of conscious thought and as such they are most often not aware of the process involved in their decision making it is safe to assume that the majority of your efforts to effect this process will be either snubbed or ignored by your intended target.
Of course even though the majority of ads, notifications, promotions and press that you create around your brand is going to miss its mark or have virtually no effect on your consumer it is still important to produce this material as it is your platform for steady evolution and adaptation of your brand in the public eye.
A commercial may generate no sales for a product when it airs but it will be seen, and if your brand has a memorable logo, and uses complimentary colors in their ads and marketing materials that they remember to match across all of their connected materials from websites to merchandise to print ads, you will create a familiarity with your brand that will translate into a much higher percentage of likelihood that consumers will recognise your product and potentially buy it at a later date when a more subtle, long term, approach has been developed and executed by your brand.
Iconic branding, defining your self in style, colors, shapes, sounds, monogram logos, mascots, and all the rest is only as valuable as it is adaptable to the various situations that arise in the span of a brands existence. This, and the ability of its owners to have the foresight to build a brand that resonates with people long after exposure but that does not insist upon the consumer o make a purchase.
More to come.
Below area number of example so of the same general brand imagery adapted to a variety of different applications and platforms. The primary definition is present and the memorable fixtures and visual assets are used in each image in almost the exact same way each time, but their is a very visible difference from image to image that stands out for each design as, often, the key elements that link the brand to the current station or cause or venue.
In this way you can see how one may adapt a memorable and iconic brand definition that is also versatile and adaptable to various platforms depending on the need.
