Brand Corporate Identity: Project #1

23.08.2021 - 30.08.2021 (Week #1 - Week #2)

Seerat Tayyab Mukhtar Qureshi - 0345576 (BDCM)

Brand Corporate Identity

Project #1: Breaking Brand

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Lectures:

BCI_1_Introduction

This module will focus on the visual integrity of a brand and the basics of identity design. In brand identity, a symbol can go on to become a wordmark, which can go on to become a larger identity.

Example of brand identity by Pentagram

This lecture was an overview of this module and what projects we need to submit. We need to manage our time properly since this semester is heavy and by organising ourselves we can improve our work.

BCI_2_Brand

Brand:

The word is derived from Old Norse words brandr or "to burn." This refers to the practice of branding livestock which dates back more than 4000 years to the Indus Valley civilisation. From the past to now branding is still about taking ownership. A brand is a gut feeling of a product or service. Branding at its strongest can takes ownership over a word, imagery or sentence. 

Brand identity:

Brand identity is the collection of all elements that a company creates to portray the right image to its consumer. 

Branding:

Branding is the process of giving meaning to a specific organisation, company, product or service by actively creating and shaping a brand in the consumers' minds. It is the process of hijacking and shaping an image in the consumers' minds.

Achieving branding

Branding has many benefits such as:

- Standing out in a saturated market

- Credibility

- Being able to charge what you're worth

- Customer loyalty (returning customers & referrals)

- Consistency 

- Attract ideal clients

- Save money and time in the long run

- Give you confidence in your business

- Easier to introduce new products/services

- Clear strategy for moving forward

The role of a designer is to develop, envision, create a visual identity that is distinct, memorable, consistent, value-based, profit-based, gives confidence, increases market-share, endears itself to the audience and wins the trust and loyalty of its audience. This can be done through good research and the development of an effective visual identity programme.

Design programme

Instructions:

Module Information Booklet

Project #1: Breaking Brand

For this project, we had to pick a brand and conduct research on various aspects of the brand. The research was to be done as a group and then we combine it together into our individual slides. My group chose Gucci.

Fig 1.0: Our group research document

Fig 1.0: Individual slides

Feedback:

Week #1: In our first class of the semester, Ms Li Lian told us what is to be expected of us from this module. She told us what we need to prepare for next week. We need to form groups for our research and then compile our slides.

Week #2: This week Ms Li Lian got our feedback on how our project 1 was going so far and if we needed extra time. Our submission for this project is this week and then she will go through our research.

Week #3: Ms Li Lian gave us feedback on our submissions. She said that our group's research was thorough and well done. My individual slides were good but they lacked visuals which would have been very useful in showcasing the brand since we are studying graphic design. I will keep this in mind for the next projects as well.

Reflection:

Experience: Overall, I enjoyed working with a group, they were very cooperative and hardworking. It definitely made the load of the heavy research easier. The researching itself was an experience I am kind of used to by now since we have been thoroughly prepared for it in the past semesters. Although a short project, it has kickstarted what we are expected of in this module and how we can achieve that.

Observation: I noticed that although at first the research work seemed like a lot, even as part of a group, once you get into the flow of it, it becomes quite easy and even enjoyable. I noticed that I was appreciating learning little details about the brand and all the thought and effort that goes into making a brand successful.

Findings: I found that a lot of luxury brands are actually quite similar and their only unique selling point is their branding. This was quite interesting as they have such a high price, yet people purchase them just for the branding. This certainly increase the importance branding already held for me. I also found that a lot of high fashion brands originate from Italy, which makes their competition even more fierce.

Further Reading:

Indie Type

I bought this book last semester for Advanced Typography and although I couldn't finish reading it, it quickly became one of my favourite books to look at. 

It focuses on how brand and visual identities are created by various different design agencies around the world. I find the process to be so fascinating and for this project, I decided to focus more on the second half of the book which is around the application of fonts in visual identities. Since we are breaking down a brand, this book really helps show the framework of a brand's identity and how it is built from scratch.

Taking just a typeface and then transforming it into an entire visual journal for a brand and the process behind it is what makes branding so interesting. The most valuable lesson I think is that everything has to be super well thought out and researched because you will be shaping the perception of people, which relates to this project. The book documents how closely designers work with the clients to make sure they can convey exactly what the client wants the brand to be.