Journeys with meaning: January 2013

What ?

To design a Fluid/Dynamic Identity for a travel group named Journeys with Meaning. Which can be able to communicate different aspects of a brand by using different imagery, depending on the context.

About

'Journeys with meaning'

Journeys with meaning is vindo Sreedhar's (social entrepreneur) initiative, launched in 2009 with the primary aim of raising awareness about ecological issues and community life in india. Sreedhar, has been organizing trips where travelers interacts and stay with locals and understand their daily lives.

The journeys are designed in a way that helps people develop nuanced perspectives on earth-friendly living and conscious or ethical travel besides having loads of fun. He has done seven trips to different locations in both Kashmir and Ladakh.

‘Journeys with meaning’ aim at

- Bridging gaps between urban and rural India.

- Helping people understand and negotiate the tricky debate between

development & sustainability.

- Reconnecting people with natural systems & natural ways of living.

- Helping people become more self-aware about their life's purposes

and goals.

Why ?

Branding and Identity design are always been a source of inspiration for me. But this is the area which I haven’t explored yet. So, with this skill based project, I wish to pursue my interest for Symbols and Identity design and explore the various aspects and levels of the identity design.

How ?

Will read about some of the case studies of different brands with respect to identity design.

Will try to explore the various aspects and levels of identity design keeping media and their usages in mind.

Project proposal

INFORMATION COLLECTION
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BASIC INFORMATION:

What is Logo, Brand and identity?

A logo is not your brand, nor is it your identity. Logo design, identity design and branding and branding all have different roles, that together, form a perceived image for business or product. There has been some recent discussion on the web about this topic, about your logo not being your brand. Although this may be true, I haven't seen any clarification of the differences between 'brand', 'identity', and 'logo'.

What is logo?
A logo identifies a business in its simplest form via the use of a mark or icon.

What is brand?
The perceived emotional corporate image as a whole.

What is identity?
The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand.

What is logo?
The word logo is short for logotype, which is defined as “a graphic representation or symbol of a company name, trademark, abbreviation, etc., often uniquely designed for ready recognition.” Logos are either purely graphic (symbols/icons) or are composed of the name of the organization (a logotype or wordmark). So essentially a logo is a picture that represents the collection of experiences that forms a perception in the mind of those who encounter an organization.

What is brand?
Brand is a "Name,term,design,symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers." A brand can take many forms from a name, symbol, color palette or even a slogan. The word has continued to evolve and now encompasses the word identity because it affects the personality of a product, company or service and is defined by a perception, good or bad, that your customers have about your business. Essentially, your brand helps to shape your identity.

See how the logo is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s the only visual clue above the water showing passer-by’s that there’s something here.Now look at how much mass is below the water. This is what the entire brand represents. A visual structure of everything associated with a business.

What is identity?
Identity is something that’s different from a logo but, unfortunately is commonly mistaken as one. An identity is something that encompasses more than just logo. Its a culmination of all the visual and non-visual elements that make up a company, business or individual. Everything from their name to their logo, business cards, website design, packaging or even in-store experiences. It encompasses the entire experience as a whole.

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All of these things make up an identity and should support the brand as a whole. the logo however, is the corporate identity and brand all wrapped up into one identifiable mark. This mark is the avatar and symbol of the business as a whole.
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What makes a good logo?

A good logo is distinctive, appropriate, practical, graphic, simple in form and conveys an intended message. There are five principles that you should follow to ensure that this is so…

An effective logo is (in no particular order):

-Simple

-Memorable

-Timeless

-Versatile

-Appropriate

1. Simple

A simple logo design allows for easy recognition and allows the logo to be versatile & memorable. Good logos feature something unique without being overdrawn.

Simple logos are often easily recognized, incredibly memorable and the most effective in conveying the requirements of the client. A refined and distilled identity will also catch the attention of a viewer zipping by signage at 70 miles per hour, on packaging on the crowded shelves of a store, or in any other vehicle used for advertising, marketing and promotion. Remember, the basis of the hugely effective international branding for the world’s largest shoe manufacturer is a very simple graphic swoosh.

2. Memorable

Following closely behind the principle of simplicity, is that of memorability. An effective logo design should be memorable and this is achieved by having a simple, yet, appropriate logo.

Surprising to many, the subject matter of a logo is of relatively little importance, and even appropriateness of content does not always play a significant role. This does not imply that appropriateness is undesirable. It merely indicates that a one-to-one relationship between a symbol and what it symbolized is very often impossible to achieve and, under certain conditions, objectionable.Ultimately, the only mandate in the design of logos, it seems, is that they be distinctive, memorable, and clear.

3. Timeless

An effective logo should be timeless – that is, it will endure the ages. Will the logo still be effective in 10, 20, 50 years? Probably the best example of a timeless logo is the Coca-Cola logo. If you compare it to the Pepsi logo below, you can see just how effective creating a timeless logo can be. Notice how the Coca Cola logo has barely changed since 1885? That is timeless design.

4. Versatile

An effective logo should be able to work across a variety of mediums and applications. The logo should be functional. For this reason a logo should be designed in vector format, to ensure that it can be scaled to any size. The logo should be able to work both in horizontal and vertical formats.

Ask yourself; is a logo still effective if:

-Printed in one color?

-Printed on the something the size of a postage stamp?

-Printed on something as large as a billboard?

-Printed in reverse (ie. light logo on dark background)

One way around creating a versatile logo is to begin designing in black and white only. This allows one to focus on the concept and shape, rather than thesubjective nature of colour. One must also remember printing costs – the more colors used, the more expensive it will be for the business over the long term.

5. Appropriate

How you position the logo should be appropriate for its intended purpose. For example, if you are designing a logo for children’s toys store, it would be appropriate to use a childish font & colour scheme. This would not be so appropriate for a law firm.

It is also important to state that that a logo doesn’t need to show what a business sells or offers as a service. ie. Car logos don’t need to show cars, computer logos don’t need to show computers. The Harley Davidson logo isn’t a motorcycle, nor is the Nokia logo a mobile phone. A logo is purely for identification.

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What is Fluid/Dynamic identity?

"A fluid or dynamic identity is a identity that changes appearance (Shape, color, wording) Based on the context. Sometimes just elements or parts of the logo are randomized to create a new instance of the brand."

fluid identity means logo systems that use multiple iterations of a mark (or series of marks) to communicate a particular aspect of a brand. These might take the form of a logo that changes with each viewing, or a singular mark that gets impregnated with different imagery, depending on the context. Moreover, new technology has applied in some fluid identity, which makes dynamic logos. The logos which animate from different colours, shapes and so on are put on the websites or other non-print media. Although the days of the static logo are certainly not extinct, this persistent way of thinking about malleable identities seems like a portend of things to come.

CASE STUDIES:

Fluid/dynamic identities:

Client: AOL
Designers: Wolff Olins
Description: People use AOL ostensibly as a search engine, to find all sorts of things, so this identity leverages that multiplicity with a wide variety of supporting images.

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Client: MTV

Designers: MTV in-house design team

Description: "we really wanted to see the logo featured in a new way, and this was really meant being able to house all the great things that are happening at MTV at any given time.

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Client: Nickelodeon
Designers: Tom Corey, Scott Nash, Alan Goodman
Description: This whimsical identity was designed with TV screen use in mind, and helped transform the flagging kids network, from 1984-2009.

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Client: New Museum
Designers: Wolff Olins, Omnivore, Droga 5
Description: The unique shape serves as a containing window to emphasize or deemphasize different graphic elements to great effect. The logo is fluid, with New and Museum serving as 'bookends' to frame whatever message is needed between the words.

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Client: MIT Media Lab
Designers: Richard The, E Roon Kang
Description: "The logo is based on an algorithm that produces a unique logo for each person. A custom web interface was developed to allow each person at the media lab to choose and claim their own individual logo for his/her business card, as well as a custom animation software which allows people to create unique animations for any video content the lab produces."