Archive for the ‘Design’ Category
Adventures in Re-Branding
When successful, branding campaigns have the ability to create a distinct mental and emotional atmosphere for potential customers and clients, helping to increase sales and create customer loyalty over time. But as with most pursuits, not every branding effort is able to be proclaimed a success. In fact, some branding campaigns may turn out to be complete failures, while others may miss their mark only slightly, and still others might have enjoyed an initial success only to find a significant drop-off in efficacy after a given period of time. Re-branding is specifically indicated for such situations, and attempts to save brands from the perils of an unsuccessful campaign while still making use of any positive accomplishments realized over the course of the initial effort. Though some brands may completely re-invent themselves with total changes in every element from name to product line, a number of companies simply consult with a branding firm to make important and necessary changes that can steer a brand towards the right path.
Re-branding for any business, whether it’s a web design firm struggling to highlight the unique angle of its web designers or a search engine optimization consultancy sending the wrong message about SEO to its target demographic, involves what can be a bit of a painful process. Going through a company’s existing branding materials, from logos and logotypes to letterhead, slogans, mascots, and positioning strategies are all parts of any in-dept re-branding scheme, and can sometimes seem like to weave a path of destruction through the accumulation of years of ideas, designs, and concepts. But following this path of destruction is a distinctly clean and open road towards better business.
Re-branding campaigns usually take a critical look at the target demographic of a given company and its range of products or services. Research into how, if at all, this demographic has changed, and how the branding image should adapt in answer, is a vital component of this effort, and ensuring that the message delivered by a brand is right for its audience is key in establishing the best re-branding campaign possible. Through a re-invention of marketing materials and ideas, often based upon the core structure and basic set of elements originally used, re-branding can help a business retain its popularity while changing its public face, resulting in an entirely new branding direction that doesn’t have to start from nothing all over again.
Whether for a multi-national corporation in Austin Texas trying to convey its independent Western spirit to Austin Tx residents and potential clients around the world or a small chocolate shop in Belgium hoping to create a more prestigious character for its business, re-branding can help mitigate the effects of an unsuccessful initial branding effort. With the right team of professionals and an openness to change, companies can try again to realize better branding benefits, whether they only need a few small adjustments or a complete overhaul.
Website Design
NuArtisan
7000 N Mo Pac Expy Ste 200
Austin, TX 78731
(512) 712-5359
Logo Design Process
If you’ve never gone through the process of designing a logo, you might laugh at the idea that it is one of the most thought-intensive and difficult endeavors within the larger field of web design and graphic design as a whole. A simple glance at a range of popular modern logos likely conveys the idea of extreme simplicity and may lead many to imagine the logo as a quick and non-intensive design job. But in fact, logo creation is one of the most challenging projects that web designers face in the course of their work.
Part of the difficulty of achieving excellent results with logo design is that extremely simple things can often be hard to precisely pinpoint. As an exercise, consider how you’d explain to a child or an alien the concept of heat, or how you might describe life itself. If you’re a physicist or biologist the exercise might lose a lot of its effectiveness, but most people will find it a real challenge to accurately and elegantly define the very simplest of things. This challenge is the focal point of the logo design process, which seeks to transform the ideas and goals of a given company into a recognizable symbol, either alone or with an accompanying logotype.
A typical procedure when initiating logo design is a consideration of the market in which the business will be advertised; in the creation of a logo for the city of Austin Texas, the details and demographics of both the Southern and overall American markets would be useful, while a company launching and selling its products exclusively in Singapore will require an understanding of an entirely different geographical market. This information can be used in the consideration of the logo’s many elements, such as color, texture, and spacing. Choosing an appropriate and attractive logotype to accompany the graphic is another important step; “Austin TX” might greatly appeal to local patrons if presented in a rustic, western font and style, while its appearance in a tiny cursive or ethnically-influenced script might not reach the intended audience in the same way.
In fact, logotypes themselves can sometimes form the basis for the entire logo. Companies with names or concentrations in fields that are commonly referred to with acronyms, such as “IBM” and SEO, can create a high degree of impact through using these short and easily-remembered letters rather than “International Business Machines” or “Search Engine Optimization.” Other companies and projects can benefit from the creation of a simple graphic design, such as an abstract shape or a particular take on a universally recognized and relevant object like a flower or a bottle. In certain cases, a character can be created to take on the personality of the business being represented.
When the confluence of color, shape, and logotype combine to reflect the atmosphere of the business itself as well as the triggers of its intended market, a valuable and timeless piece of art has been created: a logo.
For professional web design in Austin Texas visit:
NuArtisan
7000 N Mo Pac Expy Ste 200
Austin, TX 78731
(512) 712-5359