Build to last

The practice of branding design is more akin to architecture than to fashion or graphic design.

As brand designers, the value of our work is not immediately obvious and nor should it be. The true value of our work is often only clear over time. 

Like buildings, identities are build to endure tests of time. Identities are created to hold values of companies through ten, twenty years, even more. Only the passage of time can award a branding campaign success through building the value of recognition and loyalty: Will the logo come to represent the company in a natural, honest way that keeps customers loyal, engages new ones through differentiation?

“A good logo has the pleasure of recognition and the promise of meaning.” - Paul Rand

A brand identity has to work with time, to build a brand system that builds over time into the public consciousness. To work with the passing of time rather than  simply in the immediate. Brands work by instilling loyalty in their consumers. 

Logo design is not trying to be bold for the sake of being bold, to be shouty, it must be humble, contextual to its application, meaningful to its relevance. Whereas fashion, poster design, album artwork must work in the immediate, be relevant, bold, powerful to elicit immediate responses, logos must do this over time, consistently, as part of a larger visual identity system, with photography style, colour usage, consistent use of layout grids.

Logos need to build in the public conscience over time to become familiar brands that are apart of the public’s everyday lives. To do this, logos must be humble and meaningful rather than bold and bashful. - A logo is the quiet dinner guest who brings dessert and politely asks questions, not the hosts drunk, shouty, slurring and emotionally unstable sibling!

Relevant blog posts

What makes a good logo?
Leveraging Successful Differentiation
Brand Authenticity is Hard to Fake

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About the author, Adam

Adam is the design director of BrandCraft. BrandCraft is a branding and design consultancy based in Hong Kong. We specialise in branding, visual identity, corporate identity and rebranding.

Adam is a branding consultant and has worked with clients in the UK, USA, Hong Kong, Tokyo, South Korea and China. He has had self-initiated art and design projects exhibited at various galleries and museums including the Victoria & Albert Museum of Art and Design and regularly writes about branding and design theory.

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