Brandmarks

Today I finished up the first third of Designing Brand Identity and took a peek at what was to come next.

In this first third of the book, we’ve taken a look at brand identity ideals and brand identity fundamentals. My next bit of reading will take an in-depth look at the actual process involved in a successful brand identity initiative.

Anyhow, I’m going to keep it short today and just touch on one topic -brandmarks.

Let’s take a look at several different types of brandmarks. The book classifies brandmarks into several different groups: wordmarks, letterform marks, pictorial marks, abstract marks, emblems and characters.

To make things fun, I thought I’d list some brandmarks that have resonated with me.

Wordmarks. These seem the easiest to remember because the name of the company is right there in front of you.


Letterform Marks. I like letterform marks but my question is.... there's only so many characters in the alphabet. What happens when two companies use the same letter? For instance, take Honda and Hyundai... They both use the letter "H" and in my opinion there is brand confusion.

Pictorial Marks. I really like the pictorial marks but I think it would take a real investment to educate consumers about the mark such that they correlate the brandmark to the brand.

Abstract Marks. I don't particularly like the abstract mark because I would presume that it is very difficult to get consumers to make the connection between brand and brandmark. In fact, I actually had a real hard time thinking of any abstract marks off the top of my head.

Emblems. Emblems are okay but what happens when you have to condense the image for web or print? I think emblems would be hard to manage on small scale touchpoints due to image distortion.

Characters. Everyone knows Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse. But, as the case above, how much of an investment is necessary to educate consumers? I would think it would be rather hard to establish an instant connection. With that said, Geico seems to have had some success with their gecko and Alfac has had some success with that duck.