Brand Design

What is Brand Design?

Brand identity is a complex combination of the physical elements of a brand (brand name, logo, style and visuals) and the less tangible (emotion, behaviour, brand promise, interaction, awareness, etc.). These elements come together to represent how a business is perceived by its customers/audience.

How can you benefit?

A strong brand stays with people. It creates a lasting and positive impression of the company/product. It’s generally visually appealing and tied up with those less tangible elements (e.g. emotion and behaviour) so that when people think of your brand, it stands for something important and reflects your organisation.

There are many famous ‘big brands’ out there with fascinating stories about their journeys and the power of the brand. The benefits are far-reaching, and a positive brand will translate into sales/revenue.

Brands can also be applied to government, and more specifically government departments, with each department having its own brand within the larger government framework. While Brand Design doesn’t necessarily directly help our government clients adhere to the DTA’s Digital Service Standard, some of the standards are important considerations during Brand Design, such as: designing a brand focused on the end user (Agile and user-centred process) and Consistent and responsive design.

In action

Automation Concepts & Solutions design, engineer and manufacture innovative automated packaging systems. Salsa Digital was engaged to rename and rebrand AC&S for its next phase of growth.

Through a series of workshops we settled on a simple description of what they do — pack well. And so the new brand name, Pacwel, was born. The brand mark itself is a representation of one of the machines that Pacwel produces. It also nicely implies a packing motion.

More info

If you want to find out more about Brand Design, I recommend these links:

• Forbes’s 12 Principles of Great Brand Design
• 10 Brand stories
• Virgin America’s safety briefing (shows a fun take incorporating brand!)
• Top 10 Aussie brands for 2017

You may also like to view our 2016 blog, Behaviour...the reality behind the brand promise. And for a big-name case study, consider Apple. A Forbes article in May 2017 valued the Apple brand at US$170 billion, making it the world’s most valuable brand. The history of Apple talks about how the brand (and company) was born and there’s a great (although a little old!) Wired article on the Apple brand, too.

Good Brand Design will transform your organisation, ensuring a memorable brand that ‘speaks’ to your audience.

Design Thinking blog series

Reaping the rewards of Design Thinking (#1)

Business Model Canvasses (#2)

User Research (#3)

Empathy Maps (#4)

Value Proposition Design (#5)

Service Design (#6)

Co-creation (#7)