RESEARCH - BRANDING

From reseach I have found that:

Branding is the ESSENTIAL step to take a business from a small unknown company and transform them into a well-known household name.  One of the important steps to branding is to have a memorable logo.  

I believe that the process would be:

1) Research - uncover the essence of the business: perceptions and what is the mission, vision and core values, 

2) Creative thinking -  begin to think creatively about the business' postion in the market place. 

3) Brand Identity - with a clear understanding, the identity is designed (logo, stationery, etc.)

4) Clients Approval - the customer is considered. 

5) Branding is an ongoing process and never really ends. New touchpoints need to consider the brand brief, and existing ones need to be maintained and updated. 

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From:

http://justcreative.com/2010/04/06/branding-identity-logo-design-explained/#brand

A brand is a ‘corporate image’. The fundamental idea and core concept behind having a ‘corporate image’ is that everything a company does, everything it owns and everything it produces should reflect the values and aims of the business as a whole.

One major role in the ‘brand’ or ‘corporate image’ of a company is its identity.

In most cases, identity design is based around the visual devices used within a company, usually assembled within a set of guidelines. These guidelines that make up an identity usually administer how the identity is applied throughout a variety of mediums, using approved colour palettes, fonts, layouts, measurements and so forth. These guidelines ensure that the identity of the company is kept coherent, which in turn, allows the brand as a whole, to be recognisable.

The identity or ‘image’ of a company is made up of many visual devices:

• A Logo (The symbol of the entire identity & brand)
• Stationery (Letterhead + business card + envelopes, etc.)
• Marketing Collateral (Flyers, brochures, books, websites, etc.)
• Products & Packaging (Products sold and the packaging in which they come in)
• Apparel Design (Tangible clothing items that are worn by employees)
• Signage (Interior & exterior design)
• Messages & Actions (Messages conveyed via indirect or direct modes of communication)
• Other Communication (Audio, smell, touch, etc.)
• Anything visual that represents the business.

All of these things make up an identity and should support the brand as a whole. 

The logo however, is the corporate identity and brand all wrapped up into one identifiable mark. This mark is the avatar and symbol of the business as a whole.

A logo is for… identification.

A logo identifies a company or product via the use of a mark, flag, symbol or signature. A logo does not sell the company directly nor rarely does it describe a business. Logo’s derive their meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolises, not the other way around – logos are there to identity, not to explain. 

In a nutshell, what a logo means is more important than what it looks like.
 

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Summary and points to remember for me when creating an artwork:

Brand –The perceived emotional corporate image as a whole.
Identity – The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand.Logo – Identifies a business in its simplest form via the use of a mark or icon.

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