In a recent meeting with a prospective client, to discuss a communications assignment, I was asking some questions about the client’s identity, trademark usage and visual design standards. For obvious reasons, I wanted to make sure that we had an in-depth understanding of the visual design standards that would guide our work in the particular assignment we were discussing.
My counterpart on the client side began to share with me their (large and cumbersome) visual design standards documentation. Of course this mid-size client with $300+ million in revenue was not a global firm with complex identity and trademark requirements, nor was the distribution of the clients products so complex that laborious visual identity standards was adding any value to how this particular client was managing its most important asset–its visual identity. This was not a surprise to me.
Beyond the form of this client’s identity and trademark management systems, what struck me the most was the fact that the marketing communications manager suggested to me “this is only a guideline and we don’t have to follow this exactly if we have a better creative idea” We just need to stay in the spirit of these identity standards”.
I was shocked. Now she wasn’t suggesting we ignore their visual design standards, just stay within the spirit of them. Seemingly after all the human energy, time and money spent to have some visual discipline in place, here was someone suggesting we essentially use their colors and type fonts in our design work. It was obvious to me I was dealing with an individual who did not fully understand the value of design management. Nor did the organization back of this person value the process of documenting their trademark standards in an appropriate form to their specific requirements and educating their managers of the importance of strict and unwavering adherence. I think I know why.
Many mid-size firms grow from an entrepreneurial frame of reference. What sometimes happens is the development of a visual identity is not something that is given its full consideration early in the game.
For many companies in the start-up phase of their development, their visual identity consists solely of a logo. With so many other strategic issues involved in growing a business, there is not an obvious need for a long-range view about managing “visual identity”, and further, many simply do not have the resources available (human and financial) for such an endeavor. But as a company grows, management of their visual identity, trade names and trade dress often becomes a more complex issue, and one that requires executive management to adopt a more strategic point of view about the value of their brand and how its identity in the marketplace is managed. As a result, at some point in time they hire a design firm. And usually it is a design firm that does not have specialized expertise in corporate or brand identity. Creating verbal and visual identities and the design management systems that support their proper voice in the marketplace requires highly specialized expertise. This expertise is not well understood by mid-size companies.
Many mid-size companies are ill informed “buyers” of design expertise.
Just because a design firm creates logos does not inherently qualify them to provide guidance and plan a design management system that will evolve with the client business and continue to add value to it along the way. What usually happens is the well-meaning design firm creates the classic “big binder” graphic standards materials and leaves the client with the bill but no meaningful process that facilitates embedding this critical information into the organization in such a fashion as to prevent managers from wavering from, or worse, ignoring these brand assets completely. The result being a garbled brand identity that lacks meaning and relevance to customers over time.
Creating a visual identity and the design management system that supports it is both a strategic and creative process. A company’s visual identity is the first thing customers encounter and engage with. It is a critically important asset in the equation of creating brand value over time. As the business evolves and its markets expand, the attributes of the visual identity and voice it projects in the marketplace must be managed with strategic discipline and not embraced “in spirit only” by managers who are responsible for creating marketing communications.
