How does a decent brand actually help things?

I was recently asked by a new client to attend a brand workshop day with the whole organisation. The client wanted me to say a bit about ‘why brand matters’ to their co-workers

Now, normally, this kind of thing sends the fear of god into me. These are the moments when graphic designers put on their best brogues and flat caps, wind up and let loose. It’s prime time for meaningless rambles and vexing phrases. But, I thought that here might be a chance to get across some of the foundations of brand and what it really can do for organisations.

It was short and to the point and, hopefully, minus the bullshit:

– It unites stuff
Branding links your name, your logo, your marketing literature and your online presence with your audience. This brings a unified and clear message to your audience.

– Trust & loyalty
A strong brand can help build customer loyalty. Loyal customers will spread a positive message, and their influence will introduce new people to your organisation.

– Perception
A new brand gives you a chance to let your customers see you in a refreshed and reinvigorated light and can help separate you from the competition.

– It influences preference
People are generally more attracted to organisations with strong brands. This connection can’t be strategised or formulated; it just happens.

– The brand is an asset
Brand is also an asset. What you present to the public is a proportion of your business in financial terms. Good branding can create sales and revenue  and improve the bottom line.

Graphic designers seemed to have created a dark art surrounding brand. Designers have the potential to waffle on for hours about identifiers and differentiates, making branding, on the face of it, quite a daunting task.

Brand means different things to different people. To one person it can be a logo in isolation. To someone else the brand can be the logo, primary fonts, secondary fonts, colour pallets, secondary colour pallets, ad layouts, web site design, tone of voice, image tone and so on.

But genuine brand is nothing without substance underpinning it. The words you put into the public domain have opinion and influence. However you view branding internally, the key to a successful brand is understanding that it is the image of your organisation in your customers’ eyes that really counts.

Nancy Fouts is amazing

Occasionally, one is surprised that one hasn’t known of something so extraordinary in one’s life earlier. Nancy Fouts is extraordinary. A sculptural Banksy – but was doing it when he was in school shorts. Flowers Gallery put it perfectly (with a dash of Guardian reading, flat white sipping, beard oil): “Combining Surrealism, Dada and Pop Art, her work brings together seemingly disconnected objects and ideas to revel in the inherent strangeness of the everyday.”

Does Joe gets on your Wick?

He’s got it all: a 64 pack; hair as thick as cold porridge; an effortless beard; a face that stops shits in the night and a bank balance that must be looking bigger by the nano second.

And now he can afford to make his wish come true and not go topless ALL the time. Oh, wait. I think he is still topless on this cover. Oh dear. And look, a student has popped the Photoshop brush on his face and made it look all Instagram.

Good job I’m not bitter. Nothing sounds worse than bitterness on-line. It’s awful. I just wish I could be Joe. Maybe if he would just bring out a book that made it all so very simple and sustainable and totally realistic. That would be great.

Three litres of joy

I have very little interest in cars. Big, fat, bubbly new lumps of predominantly black plastic, bobbing around the streets; getting bigger than the width of parking bays; driven by either small people who look even smaller sitting above the masses, or fat people who look like an almost good fit for the monstrous hunks of steroid-inflated tut. A sweeping and, more likely than not, totally misguided generalisation, I agree; but put next to the completely unsafe, uneconomical rust-buckets of yesteryear, today’s cars look like roid-riddled distant cousins of the stylish and finesse filled automobiles from the past. Imagine my joy, when visiting my in-laws this weekend, to find that their next door neighbour (a retired mechanic) owns not only a 1950’s BSA motorbike, but also a three litre, fuel injected 1984 Ford Capri. Zero handling, zero power steering, zero vision in the driver’s seat. Design classic to the max. Whatever.

Sometimes people forget what the fuss was all about

Can’t hide this any other way. This has shit all to do with graphic design. But it does have everything to do with authenticity. The Stones are now rock and roll husks, but back in the day they were fucking amazing. The real deal. They meant every thrusting hip twitch; they actually liked Bourbon straight from the bottle and they sounded like gods at the top of their game. If you can spare a few minutes longer than the average pop tune, then you could do worse than dive into Keef’s open shirt and rub your hands over Mick’s matador jacket.

Noel is mint

If you like a kick-ass soundtrack and tasty driving scenes, then you should consider bringing Baby Driver into your life. Spacey’s real life nastiness aside, the idea for the movie was born from a short that Edgar Wright shot over a decade ago for Mint Royale; Noel fielding is cast perfectly and just beautiful.

The Gos talks fonts and Avatar

Ryan Gosling takes us through the pain that many graphic designers feel when shit fonts are used.

Poster art

Kermode talks about his passion for classic film posters; a subject close to many graphic designers hearts. A Kermode favourite is The Exorcist – one of ours to. A string of puke forever etched on my mind plus a title that’s kerned to perfection – nice.

What’s poppin’

The worry these days about the levels of sophisticated web scams getting ever more convincing seems to continue. I have an urge to present a collection of some of the finest in a book or poster form, typeset in gloriously ornate old fashioned script, on wonderful handmade paper, and to see if reading them in another ‘form’ would highlight just how incredible they sound. The best of the worst actually have an endearing quality, but we are all too ready to gloss over the sheer poetic flow and end up trashing them straight away. I know that we are all busy, but spare a thought for the author, and maybe read the occasional one – just to remind you of what complete madness looks like in an email.

This is the latest to land in my in box. Apparently I have been secretly filmed surfing grown up sites, and that if I don’t handover some Bitcoin(!?), I am going to be exposed to my entire contact list. More worrying than being revealed to my contacts is the fact that USD is out of favour and Bitcoin is the choice of currency. Isn’t Bitcoin for buying Lego and suchlike? Check it out in it’s full glory (and yes, it really did start with the words ‘Whats poppin’):

Whats poppin,

During all your life u was notified to surf web cautiously, but you didnt. Whats the metter?- You re guessing. The whole point is that I installed the virus on a website with videos for adults (Рorn web-page) (u know what Im talking about). Sacrifice Tapped on the video and device began operating as rdp supplied with keylogger. The rdp helped me to find this e-mail, I thought that you will 100% check the work email. So all cams and screen immediately started recording. After my virus collected all ur contacts from messengers, e-mails and social networks. So what do we have now? I made the split screen vid (1st part-screen rec.(you have a nice interests lol), second- cam record) and all ur contacts. Consequently in my opinion 320 usd is satis for this smallwee false. Here is My bitcoin wallet address – 1DGgLh6xeDmasCBHaLEQXwJ7C9g

(address should be without “space” or this “=” digit)

Ask internet how to buy it. It isnt very hard. Just write “how to buy btc” Ill wait one day upon opening this letter(I set a tracking pixel in it, Ill know when you open it). If I don’t recieve my bitcoins All your contacts will recieve video with you Upon I receive btc- the сompromising evidence will be destroyed.If u charge me to give proofs, reply + and Ill send this video to three contacts Ive collected from you.

Can go to police, but for a one day they can not cope, im from France, so you will be a star among friends.

R. Ealdick

Does it really hurt to add content later?

We are getting a few design requests at the moment where the client is asking for design before content, or “if you can show me what the design will look like, I can then get an idea of what and how much to write”.

This is incorrect.

Designing around nothing costs more and takes longer and is a waste of time. A softer piece can be found here.

Loosely connected to the above is the wonderful David Olgilvy’s remark, “Once upon a time I was riding on the top of a First Avenue bus, when I heard a mythical housewife say to another, “Molly, my dear, I would have bought that new brand of toilet soap if only they hadn’t set the body copy in ten point Garamond.” Don’t you believe it. What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.”

Bingo

A hero of mine, Mr Bingo continues to delight with his wonderfully fresh, poetic sense of obtuse openness in a world of high level bullshit. I sent him an email, not expecting a reply as the email address is iprobablywontreply@mr.bingo – but he did; twice. It was like getting a reply from a popular music star. A real life rapper, gentleman and artist combo. He also did a super bespoke sketch for me and my wife in his brilliant Hate Mail book.

Happy birthday to Kool Herc’s beat matching

It’s 44 years since Kool Herc publicly put two slices of the same cheese together at a Bronx shindig and made a thing that changed the face of music for ever: the ‘Merry-Go-Round’ looping break. In the relative safety of my white, middle class, middle-aged, edgeless life, Herc’s beat-matching still makes me feel as though I can hold onto a strand of street; it’s an ever thinning strand, but Jesus Christ, it makes me feel a million bucks. Boom.

N.B. There will always be a debate at what point hip hop was born; for what it’s worth ‘The Hustlers Convention’ is my starting point. Fucking amazing.

Clean living under difficult circumstances

You are either born a Mod or you aren’t. Mod is an odd world. But a beautiful one. There are the obvious Mods: Weller, Keith Moon, Steve Marriot etc. There are the less obvious Mods (who might not even class themselves as Mods): Miles Davis, Brian Auger, Don Draper etc. Mod(ernism) always bubbles just underneath the cultural crust, occasionally surfacing for a little exposure. Nothing too dramatic. The Beeb have decided to give it space on their site. Good to see things are as healthy as ever. Mod is clean and sharp – it’s all about the lines; just like this graphic design game.