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The Seven Holy Virtues of Corporate Identity

by Brendan Fitzpatrick | 21 Jun 2009 | All, Design | 0 comments

identity


Defining Corporate Identity: How well do you tell the world who you are?

Defining (or changing) your Corporate Identity usually starts with your company’s name, along with its visual identity – including its logo, colour schemes, designs, typefaces and page layouts.

The design of your logo and development of your corporate ‘style’ should satisfy the Seven Holy Virtuess of Visual Identity:

1.    Distinctive
We live on a crowded planet – it’s hard to guarantee your logo will be unique; but the design of your logo should be distinctive enough to make your trademark conspicuously different from your competitors. Remember – you want differentiation in your market.

2.   Timeless
Don’t jump on the latest design fad unless you want to come back and rebrand again in two years time. If your visual identity (including your logo design) is trendy now – it will date very quickly and your customers will soon tire of it because they will see similar logos and brands everywhere.

3. Simple
Limit your logo design, avoid complicated graphics or overly-ornate designs. The best logo designs are seamless and simple, with one graphic idea, one symbol, one theme.  Typography should be subtle and balance the visual identity and design.

4. Cohesive
Your logo design and your visual identity need to have strong internal integrity – they should work well in any size, from very small to very large, and have a good aspect and proportion – that is, your logo should not be short and wide or long and thin, but square-ish and solid-looking.

5.  Functional
Your logo design could potentially appear in plenty of places – business cards, letterheads, packaging, signs, the side of your car, even on a uniform or T-shirt; save yourself future printing headaches by ensuring your corporate designs work, small or large, in print or paint, on vinyl stickers or via embroidery. Your logo design should work in colour as well as black and white and ideally, will lend itself to a linear version. A reversible logo design gives you lots more opportunity for differentiation, too.

6.   Visual
Your visual identity needs to communicate visually – to be interpreted by your graphical right brain, not your verbal left brain. If your logo design uses letters or the name of your company, it needs a strong visual identity in its design so the form alone is recognisable without actually reading the words. And all the while – the words in your design must be easy to read.

7.    Applicable
It’s subjective, it’s hard to define – but ultimately, your visual identity needs to communicate a unified and appropriate feeling (“…it’s the vibe, man!”) that really sums up the positioning and the culture of your organisation.

Contact us to talk about the visual identity and logo design that’s right for your company.

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