Developing a new brand can be a deeply personal experience, especially when the owners of the business are involved, but it is also important that the brand reflects the culture of the team too, combining to create a full brand experience, that is both personal yet professional

This is the 5th brand generation that the business has had over the years and without doubt, our new brand has been delivered in the right way that reflects our values, cultures and behaviours perfectly and is both current today and will be for the next decade.

We have all encountered our expectations of a business being met, exceeded and also disappointed with what we initially thought would be. There are 5 factors that determine a brand.

The Promise

What will someone experience when they engage with your brand. This can be physical and perhaps more importantly emotive, It is important for there to be trust and for them to see the potential in your brand.

The Perception

It’s generally the consumer and not the company itself that determines how a brand is perceived. We can lay down the foundation to give your brand the best springboard into steering perception. Ensuring that the first impression is a lasting one.

The Expectation

Based on the promise, consumers build their expectations for your brand. When they interact with your brand they assume their expectation will be met. If it doesn’t, this impacts on perception and them seeking another brand that delivers their expectation. Live up to the name, a trusted look and feel goes a long way in solidifying your brand message.

The Persona

Sometimes it’s beneficial to think of your brand as ‘who’ and not ‘what’. What would that person stand for, what would they be like to interact with? From appearance to personality a consumer will judge a brand and evaluate the ‘persona’ before doing business with you.

The Elements

Your brand is made up of more than just a logo, messaging, packaging, social platforms. It’s all the tangible and intangible things above. These must all have a consistent and coherent message to give your brand the overall power to remain memorable and trusted in a crowded marketplace.

Communicate your brand promise, shape their perception, exceed their expectations, live & breathe the personality and deliver the elements. All of these things combine to give a true brand experience at every moment of consumer engagement.

Its true to say that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression and as a creative business delivering branding & digital projects for businesses we are always preaching about being consistent when it comes to the presentation of the brand.

With that in mind we always advise that when a new brand is being designed, then refined then unveiled that the staff should be involved in the process and it should be launched internally with the same fanfare and pride that you would launch to the public.

The team that will be living and breathing it need to be heard and similarly, have a want to be a part of it.

So, can you confidently answer the following questions…

• Do you love your brand?
• Do your customers love and engage with your brand?
• Does it reflect where the business is and where you want to to go?
• Does your brand match your business values and behaviours?

If you are interested in working with us to bring your branding vision to life or feel your current brand is in need of a refresh get in touch by filling in the form below.

As many of you will know by now, we have been doing some updates to the SHINE studio. We wanted it to reflect the fun people that we are and have been trying to put our yellow stamp on the place as much as possible.

If you can remember as far back as Christmas (I know it feels like ages ago now!), we shared our brand new giant keyboard table with you, as well as our yellow brick road. So, in keeping with this, we have been putting some fancy frames up around the studio.

This is just our kind of humour, with design puns & jokes that all designers can relate to…

And a bonus one from Peter… £1 to the new swear jar…

I’m sure that by now you will have seen Google’s new logo. They have simplified, modernised and made it appeal to younger users. They are actually not the only large company to modernise their image this year. Facebook also launched a new design of their logo. And in 2014, Netflix and STV released updated versions of their logos.
As an agency that love branding, we are fascinated when companies change their logos and love to have a good old chat about what we think of the colours, font and overall look… and whether it was worth doing or not….

Google

We like Google’s new logo. What makes Google ‘Google’ is the colours and the simplicity in the branding. The new logo has kept this and simplified it even further. The old logo had a problem with the scalability on the serifs, so the new design overcomes this having lost the serifs.

Also, here is something really interesting and design-y! The bar of the squinty ‘e’ lines up perfectly with the ‘g’. Fancy!

Facebook

What do we say about Facebook’s new logo? The font is slightly different…?

Netflix

The new logo is certainly simpler. Red on white is also an easier colour combination than white on red to read. The new design also works much better on a small screen such as a mobile (even though mobile screens are getting bigger and bigger…)

STV

We just had to get a local Scottish one in! STV seem to be doing the exact opposite of all other brands and making their logo less simple…

So what do they all have in common?

Most of these changes are fairly subtle. Whether it’s a slight change of colour, font or background, they all have one thing in common. Each is designed to be simpler (except STV) and more mobile friendly. In this age of mobile and tablets dominating the market, and users spending more and more time on mobile technology it makes sense that these companies are wanting to make their logo stand out easier on these mediums.
In fact, Google have gone one step further and adapted their logo for each channel that they have. There’s a blog all about how Google have made their logo adaptive, it’s quite an interesting read. Anyway, let’s just point out that Google’s new ‘G’ is quite similar to the Glasgow Commonwealth ’G’…

What can we learn from these big brands?

1. The major trend in logo design right now is a flat design. No complex embellishment, just vector-based designs. Keeping it nice and simple.
2. It is so important to keep your branding up to date and understand how your audience is using your brand to make it effective
3. The brand should be keeping on top of trends and continuing to be relevant to its target audience. You need to evaluate how your customers are using your services and make sure your brand message is consistent with this.
4. You don’t necessarily need a massive rebrand to modernise or update your identity. Sometimes a simple redesign or alteration is all that is needed…
Of course we want your brand be beautifully designed, so as a design agency, we will always seek to make your brand identity the best that it can be. Have a look at some of our rebranding projects here to see for yourself.