The Most Comprehensive Trend Report on the Visual Language of Brand Identity
Trends in the visual language of brand identity are driven by many factors from the ‘me-too-ism’ of designers and their clients mimicking the visual language of market leaders, to new and emerging trends such as ‘sustainability’ that draw a similar and en-mass visual response from designers all over the world. Over the past 12 months we have collected more than five thousand different brand expressions spanning almost every major industry and category of the western world.

Our 2010 Trend Report has been picked-up and re-published in blogs and marketing publications around the world – so by request we’re providing the report as one, complete pdf download (even if it is a whopping 6.8mb in size).

The brand expressions we tracked included existing, new and refined brand identities, product packaging, newspaper, magazine and billboard ads. The scale and breadth of these brand expressions allowed us to identify the major brand visual language trends of a broad range of market leaders for the last year. Whilst the majority of the examples presented in this report are recent, many trends are not in themselves new. It is our interpretation of the groundswell of take-up of a trend and the influence exerted within their market by the brands involved, that leads us to define the most compelling and influential trends.

What’s the value of a Trend Report?
All brands project an image through their visual language. It is up to each brand to make conscious and informed decisions about exactly what they wish their visual language to communicate relative to the competition and to their market’s perceptions.The report includes hundreds of examples of brands and their visual language to illustrate examples of brands who leverage trends to their advantage, as well as examples of those who follow trends to their disadvantage. The examples cross industries from fashion to food, from transport to telecommunications and everything in between, as well as markets from Australia to Asia, from Europe to the Middle East and the U.S.

Valuable Insights for all Owners and managers of Brands
An understanding and mastery of the trends in brand visual language will allow business to ‘tune’ their brand’s image to ensure they’re consistently communicating the right messages to the right people. For every organisation seeking to best manage their brand identity, these trends must be part of the consideration process. For each brand there will be advantages and disadvantages to leveraging the cues and meaning inherent in these trends. The big question you should be considering is this; ‘does the trend provide an opportunity to leverage a set of visual cues to communicate the perfect brand messages to your market, or has the trend become so widely adopted as to compromise the uniqueness of the brands who follow it?’

Click here to download a complete version of our 2010 Brand Visual Language Trend Report (6.8mb pdf file)

© 2010 Truly Deeply. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. We’re delighted for you to share, blog or publish extracts of our articles, on the condition that Storm Design & Brand DNA are properly credited (and linked to) as the source, and that you include either our URL: trulydeeply.com.au or the link to this source.

For further information, questions and enquires, feel free to contact us directly.

David Ansett, Brandamentalist
For monthly updates of our thinking, click here to receive our free Brand Newsletter
Brand Designer and Trend Spotter.

Have you ever played the old parlour game of ‘Whispers’ where one person whispers a phrase to you and you pass it on, by whisper, to the next person. After 6 or 7 rounds ‘I have a square’ becomes  ’a star’. It’s a demonstration of how the intent behind a message can be lost in transition if there is not someone standing between the individual whisperers correcting them.

Early in my marketing career it struck me that the same distortion of message happens when we are trying to take our customers from one end of the purchase process to the other – from a vague interest or need  for our product to purchase. At each stage the customer makes decisions about your brand and product that determine whether you make it to the next stage. Trusting to luck and leaving  your message to find its own way through the purchase process is fraught with danger.

The savvy marketer knows you need to manage every aspect – the brand message and voice, the value proposition and communication content – at every stage to ensure you get the best bang for your marketing buck. You need to look at each stage, at every touchpoint and identify which aspects of your message need dialing up and which down, in order that you can remain in the process.

As a next step you then need to design communications that best deliver the appropriate message at each stage, perhaps a phone follow-up to sales enquiry, an e-mail campaign to people who have asked for a quote, a leaflet explaining jargon at the point they are exploring products…the fun is in identifying the communication gaps and finding ways to fill them.

Reviewing your purchase process might seem arduous but you could be missing a simple fix that could really impact your bottom line sales – imagine if your conversion rate went from 1 to 2%.

As an marketer I have found this approach incredibly powerful . Simply put, this is how I view the communications process.

Knowing the process is only part of the answer, you then have to work with other talented people to make it work.
Here at Truly Deeply we are devoted to ensuring our clients stay true to their brand strategy, brand essence and core message in everything they do. If you would like to talk to us about how we can fool-proof your purchase process why not give us a call.

Malcolm Harvey
Client Experiences Director and Direct Marketing go-to guy.

Giorgio Armani is one of the world’s most recognisable and sought after fashion brands with end of year sales banded around at $1.69 billion. From haute coutre, ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, watches, jewelry, eyewear, cosmetics and home interiors Armani has become synonymous with high-fashion and couture worldwide.

Under the Armani ‘umbrella” brand are sub-brands that include Giorgio Armani, Armani Collezioni, Emporio Armani, AJ|Armani Jeans, AX|Armani Exchange, Armani Junior, and Armani|Casa – not a bad brand portfolio really is it? But wait there’s more!

The Armani brand also operates a range of cafés worldwide, in addition to a bar, restaurant, nightclub and now the Armani Hotel Dubai (part of the Burj Khalifa development) the tallest commercial and residential building in the world built at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion. The bottom 39 floors of the skyscraper house 160 guest rooms and suites, and 144 residences with Armani himself being responsible for overseeing all aspects of the interior design and style of the hotel – what I’d call an absolute ‘on brand’ experience!

Not only is the Armani hotel now operational in Dubai, but after signing an agreement in 2004 with Emaar Properties at least another six luxury hotels and three resorts are being planned in several major cities such as Milan, Paris, New York, London, Tokyo and Shanghai again all specially designed inline with products from the Armani/Casa home furnishings collection.

If you’d like to talk to us about how we could add greater hight to your brand and its story why not give us a call.

Dominic Guthrie
Client Account Director

So often we find a great brand communication thought that is let down by poor creative execution, or a piece of beautiful brand design that lacks a powerful thought. Obviously the best solutions are those that combine a strategically sharp piece of brand thinking with brand design that truly and deeply connects that thought with an emotionally evocative visual.

When we found this beautiful point of sale brand communication for Play-Doh, we knew we’d found a wonderful piece of brand story-telling. These posters have been created by Driv, a Malaysian born designer based-in Singapore. The crafting of the photography, styling and typography are beautiful. Nice one Driv.

The Story of the Truly Deeply brand identity
It was shortly after the relationship between Storm and BrandDNA was made official that we made the decision. A decision we felt we would recommend to any client in a similar position. Stop wasting energy supporting two brands and focus your resources on one. It wasn’t that there was problems with the old brands, we loved them, and still do. It was that we had a new offer, that couldn’t be successfully represented by one or the other. So nearly three years ago, on a planning weekend down the Mornington Peninsula, we made the choice. It was time for Storm and BrandDNA to fade away and be replaced by a brand that truly represented the new brand design ethos of the new company.

Now, rebranding is always a difficult process. A brand identity is such a financially valuable and emotionally precious part of any organisation that changing it is nothing less than a rebirth for that organisation. Whether the rebrand is a catalyst for the change to come or the final flowering result of a period of evolution, it will be a challenge. There will always be key stakeholders, opinioned interested parties, meddling well-meaners and general others who’ll need to be appeased to keep the process moving forward. So, when it comes to rebranding a creative organisation, the difficulty can increase exponentially, when it comes to a creative branding agency rebranding itself it can get very, very challenging.

The biggest challenge was that we’re all experts in branding. Combined, we have hundreds of years of experience in branding every conceivable entity. We know the strategies, we know the theory. We’ve certainly got the practical experience. So we thought the rules we’re different for us. We thought we could short-circuit the process, get straight down to creating a next generation brand for a next generation branding company. Diving straight in created some interesting elements but nothing of substance we could agree on. We couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

What’s in a name?
Hundreds. Hundreds and hundreds of names. We considered thousands of names, some lasted seconds, some days, some months, one was even registered, one nearly caused revolt, but none we’re right. The process lost momentum, we we’re distracted by the day to day of creating successful brands for everyone else and let our own branding process slide. It wasn’t till we realised we we’re cheating ourselves and our new brand, by not imposing the rigour and discipline we apply to other brands. The first thing we tell any client is that to create a successful brand you need absolute clarity about what your trying to achieve. We thought we could skip it because we knew better. It reminds me of one of my dear mam’s sayings ‘Nearer the church. Further from God.’

Being truly true
It was only when we gave the project the respect it deserved and ourselves the time to apply the process we’ve created to craft brands for our clients. We started to get results we really liked and results that were clearly bringing the brand to life. We had a brand essence, values and personality we all agreed on. Our brand essence ‘A brand inspired design obsession’  set the standard. We had a name that embodied the balance of our creative and strategic talents, while resonating with the true emotional power of strong branding. We became Truly Deeply. An organisation obsessive about creating brands that evoke powerful emotional connections with customers.

The brandmark
Now we had our name and a great brand descriptor ‘Re-imagining Brands’ we needed to focus on the visual language that would bring our brand to life. Our brand decode process enabled us to have a strategic direction as to the visual style the brandmark should take. We conceived of a brandmark with the traditional cues of blue chip consulting agency, softened and embellished to reflect our creative obsessions. The brandmark was crafted from Hubert Jocham’s beautiful Narziss Drops font (before Hubert created all the different weights). To accompany the brandmark we created a series of stunning illustration, our menagerie of fantastic creatures.

The bestiary
I can reveal now, no animals were harmed in this re-branding. These illustrations are the part of the identity that really brings the brand to life. They’re magical, intriguing and have an artistic quality. There’s a different one on everybody’s business cards. They’re a natural talking point. For me, it’s their ability to be interpreted, sometimes in surprising ways, that keeps them fresh and entertaining. It’s funny, now, to think how concerned we were about them. We thought they could be too challenging for our clients, too gory for some of the more sensitive souls. But every one loves them, some clients collect them, wanting to know if there’s more they’ve missed out on. I’ve only heard one comment in the months we’ve been using them about them being bloody, and that was from a local government client naturally averse to anything not certified  politically correct. Here’s the full collection for your viewing pleasure:

If a job’s worth doing…

Creating a great brand is a difficult process. You can trim budgets and push boundaries. But if you don’t do it properly, with the respect and diligence it deserves, you can’t expect to get the results your brand deserves. Spend the time and effort at the start getting your strategy and thinking resolved and the creative will flow, forming a brand that will be a truly powerful expression of your essence. If you’d like to talk to us about our branding or yours give us a call.

Derek Carroll
Director of Design
& Poker of Bears

How Do You Stand Out When You’re Marketing Tourism?
Stunning scenery,amazing activities and beautiful people located in exotic destinations come standard in the travel industry. So how do you differentiate your brand from the rest of the pack? Through creative brand imagery.

The Fly Ecuador campaign for Tame Airlines is a stunning example of the power of imagery to create evocative, magical brand stories that set the imagination soaring and create emotional connections between customer and business. Created with a theme of flying, the photos combine the people of Ecuador with mystical wings made up of fish, buildings, nets, ships – any evocative symbol of the places they represent. The ads communicate that the perfect Ecuador experience is unique to each customer, and that Tame Airlines gives you the freedom to capture your own unique, magical Ecuadorian travel experience.

Just beautiful.

David Ansett, Brandamentalist
For daily updates of our brand thinking, follow me on Twitter
Brand Designer

You Only Get One Chance to Make a First Brand Impression
So the saying goes. And when Aol. launched their new brand identity last year, it was met with the type of disgruntled negativity reserved by marketers and brand designers for big corporates who make a meal of their opportunity to create a magical connection with the market as they tell their new brand story.

Click here to view the embedded video.

However, unlike most big corporates, Aol. have taken the criticism on the chin, picked themselves-up and successfully strived to get it right the next time around.

Six months after re-designing their brand identity and to coincide with their 25th anniversary celebrations, AOL has released a “2nd Collection” of logos and animations. packed with brand personality Conspiring with a bunch of talented designers, illustrators and animators from around the world, Aol. has successfully injected mega-litres of cool into their brand. Organisations who allow the visual language of their brand identity to ebb and flow stand a great chance of creating something that connects with their market – especially if their market happens to be aged under thirty five. For these generations bought-up on fast changing visual interface, brands who partner with talented artists, designers and architects to express the brand story in their own words (designs) are speaking to them in their own language – which ads up to a heady elixir of relevance and cool.

People involved in the Aol. 2nd Collection include: Darren Booth, Rachel Thomas, Sarah Stout, GHAVA, James Taylor, James Wojcik, Universal Everything, Nathan Fox, Mr Kiji, Helen Musselwhite, Robert Samuel Hanson, Phillip Low, Mike Perry, Mark Verhaagen, Kristian Hammerstad, Jenny Bowers, Jon Burgerman, Hvass&Hannibal, Hawaii, Harry Malt, Eva Hjelte, Dylan Griffin, Dave White, Chrissy Angliker, Celyn, Alan Kitching, Anna Maria, HunterGatherer, Antoine+Manuel, Genevieve Gauckler, Klaus Haapaniemi, and Siggi Eggertsson.

David Ansett, Brandamentalist
For daily updates of our brand thinking, follow me on Twitter
Brand Designer

Designed to be Different
The very best examples of brands that touch the soul are often those with the differentiating design ‘baked-in’. Too often design is seen as the bit that wraps around the (often identical) finished product. I spotted these beautiful Moonflower soaps. Moonflower is a high-end bath and body line from the US and looks like it has beautiful design sown-in to its very DNA.

The big wait is over. In September 2009 Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean announced the call for tenders from creative agencies to assist with the task of enhancing Australia’s brand overseas. In the last week we have seen the launch of a new visual identity for Brand Australia, created by Re, a small group of designers working out of M&C Saatchi’s Sydney office.

Mr Crean said, “We want a clear vision of how Australia should be seen by the rest of the world in the 21st century. We will be looking for agencies to build a contemporary national brand – one which captures the essence of Australia – not just a great place to visit but a great place to live, work, and invest – a trusted trading partner and a great place to pursue an education. This is not just about a slogan and it goes beyond the on-going promotion of Australia as a global tourist destination – a reputation that is well established. Building Brand Australiais about promoting Australia as a nation producing quality products and services across a diverse field of activities. We need to get the message out that we are an innovative nation and a quality supplier to the world of key products such as clean energy and clean food.”

So with Mr Crean’s aspiration in mind what do you think of Australia’s new brand mark?

Brand Australia
In the past week it has been described in a variety of ways. The most common being, boomerangs as arrows framing a map of Australia. However you describe it, it does have a corporate, business to business feel about and that is consistent with the brief. But the flip side in the lively debate that has taken place in our studio is that it does not evoke any emotional appeal, that is is a little one dimensional. Read other blogs and the comments vary from very technical design savvy appraisals, such as….’the typography is a bit drab’… through to more emotive comments regarding the perceived representation of the boomerang….’lets use boomerangs again like every cheesy souvenir shop out there. Does this represent Australia in a contemporary 21st Century manner’.

But I wish to park the debate about the merits of the design. For the record however, as someone who works in brand strategy (not as a designer like many of my leaned colleagues here in the studio), I have to declare I don’t mind the new logo. It works well as a visual geographical marker of Australia and has a professional business like air about it. But the actual logo is not the real purpose of this blog, it is rather to remind us all that logo is not the brand. The arrows or the boomerangs or what ever descriptors we use to describe it, that is not brand Australia. Brand Australia is what meaning people overseas attribute to Australia when they think of Australia.

The logo is simply an identifier of which country is bringing a particular product or service to an international market. Brand Australia on the other hand is how people in that market think and feel about Australia in terms of quality, capabilities, expertise or whatever relevant attributes they use to assess the merits of a product or service from Australia, over those from another country. Yes, the logo may act as an important cue to what is on offer. It also serves to build a presence in markets, to act as an important aggregator for the diverse products and services that come out of Australia by providing a common brand mark. But as a brand building strategy it will be very very slow, because by definition we are saying our brand is everything!

I am therefore more excited at seeing what Mr Crean and his team does in phase two of the brand Australia project. What is the essence of brand Australia that they are aspiring to communicate to the world. What are going to be Australia’s signature expressions to capture the hearts and minds of overseas customers. What are we going to stand for? Currently the expression ‘Australia Unlimited’, that forms part of the lock-up in the new logo, does little to drive an understanding of what we are setting out to ‘own’ in international markets. In fact, in many respects the Unlimited expression may even communicate negative sentiment in some markets, particularly those who have laid claim to the positioning already, such as Unlimited Turkey (yes an interesting positioning line) and London Unlimited.

So, Mr Crean what is the defining essence of the brand Australia? If we think it is ‘everything’ as in ‘unlimited’ then we really are going to struggle to create a brand in International markets that is understood, different and valued.

As we regularly say to clients,

‘…a Brand that wants to be a little of everything will eventually amount to a lot of nothing’

Peter Singline
Brand Scientist

All pictures found at http://www.brandaustralia.gov.au/index.htm

Colour affects us physiologically
and psychologically, consciously
and subconsciously. Colour is used
to shape and define our lives, our habits, our values and our feelings. The colours we choose to wear and
to decorate our homes give others personal insight into our emotions
and how we wish to project ourselves
to the world. Colour is a silent language that we all react to based-on our learned responses. Our learned associations are critical contributing factors in the way we perceive and attach meanings to colours.

Cultural Awareness
Colour is subjective. Although we may not all see the same colour, within our own cultural group the emotional response is surprisingly common. Colour is a powerful and important communication tool tied to religious, cultural, political, and social influences. While there are commonalities in the meanings of colours around the world, they may also differ greatly between cultures. It is important to be aware that different cultures attach meaning to colour in different ways. The cultural bias for colour symbolism can be very powerful. In China they use white during funerals as they associate white with winter time in which nature is dead; where-as in Western cultures black is used.

Colour and Brand Design
As a result of the way colour associations are wired into the way we see and understand the world, colour is an integral part of brand strategy communication. A brand’s colour communicates a variety of messages that directly impact the consumer by connecting associated meanings (often subconsciously)
to the brand. As well as simply capturing an audience’s attention, colour can stimulate emotional responses, affect an individual’s perception, form attitudes and improve learning and persuasiveness. As a visual brand property, colour is highly influentual at every touchpoint from brandmark, signage, packaging and even the product itself.

As more and more brands expand globally the use of colour in branding has taken on new importance. When migrating a brand into any new market, it’s important to consider the cultural ramification of your brand’s colour palette and make informed brand decisions to ensure that you’re sending relevant brand messages to your new customers. Before launching a global brand, especially one on-line, it’s essential to consider colour meanings throughout the world.

The Importance of Colour in Global Branding
Brands that fail to take cultural values into consideration before entering the global market can invite disaster. When a Japanese brand unsuccessful tried to sell black scooters in India they discovered the colour black is considered inauspicious, not a positive virtue for their product. Mothers across India were telling their sons they couldn’t buy a scooter because they associated black with death. As soon as the brand introduced a new range of coloured scooters sales picked-up (Surya Vanka, University of Illinois).

In another case a Canadian airline brand changed the colours of its fleet, unaware that their new brand colour combination was associated with bad luck in certain South Asian cultures. They ended up switched back to their original colours – a costly exercise and diversion for the business.

A US chewing gum brand found their product wasn’t selling very well in China. After changing their packaging from green to pink, symbolizing good luck in China, sales rose.

In Thailand purple is the colour of mourning, yet the Thai Airways chose it as their primary brand colour. At first glance this seems like a mistake for the domestic market, but as the Thai Airways business is heavily weighted to the international market, their brand will take on the western meaning of purple and their brand will be associated with royalty, luxury, wealth and comfort.

The Current Global Brand Colour Landscape
Colour shapes the way we think in an immediate and emotional way. In a society faced with information overload, colour communicates in a simply and effectively. Colour has tremendous cultural significance and ignoring them could mean your brand offends an entire country. It is important that you do your research and know your consumer. Whatever colour you ultimately choose to represent your brand, make sure they accurately convey your brand message.

Today many people around the world have access to information they never had before. This globalization means that customs, traditions and ideas are becoming increasingly universal. Colours and symbols are more widely accepted cross-culturally, especially by younger consumers. For instance, in China, where wedding dresses were traditionally red rather than white as they are in western cultures, today, Chinese brides predominantly wear traditional white western style wedding dresses with red jackets. From a brand perspective, we are watching the world of colour evolve and revolutionize.

Brands currently find themselves in ‘colour no-mans land’. No-longer do the traditional meanings of culture strictly and broadly apply to colours in different markets, and we have-not, and probably will never will reach the point where we see a globally standardized set of colour associations. In-lieu of a clear set of guiding principles, brands must carefully consider the way they leverage their visual language iconography – especially their use of colour to ensure they are communicating the right messages
to the right people where-ever they are in the world.

If you’d like to talk to some people who spend way too much of their life eating, sleeping, thinking about the role of colour in brands give us a call.

Cassandra Gill
Director of Design.