Design can ‘create’ a brand, but the concept or idea of the brand can also inform the design.
As Rita Clifton, chairman of branding consultancy Interbrand, explains: ‘How do you design your products and services so they reflect the sort of company you want to be in a very efficient and effective way? Brand based innovation, brand based design, is the most efficient design because the brand tells you what kind of design you’re going to try, what angle on design you’re going to use, either in terms of processes or aesthetically. Equally, when you’re designing human resources processes, evaluation or incentive programmes, you need to make sure that the brand is the thing that gets rewarded.’
Although nearly all design disciplines could be involved in the creation and maintenance of an organisation’s brand, some are more directly related to branding that others.
Graphic designers, for example, help clients with many of the visual elements of their client’s communications, such as corporate identity and logos, typography, print materials, stationery and so on. See our case study on Johnson Matthey
Packaging designers might help create the ‘essence’ of an fmcg product, for example, by building brand identity through a pack’s graphics, structure and materials. See our case study on Nusa Kitchen
Similarly, retailers work with retail designers to ensure that their brand is successfully reflected in the physical environments of their stores. This strengthens the retailer’s position against competitors and makes its particular offer clearer to consumers. See our case study on Oskar
A high profile example of retail design meeting brand design is Apple’s retail stores: the store interiors reflect the aesthetics and principles of the company and its products.
More detailed information about the individual design specialisms can be found in the ‘Design disciplines’ area of this site. Of particular relevance to the formation of a brand are:
For a general discussion about working with designers and design processes see our step-by-step guide to finding and working with a designer.