In this blog, I'm going to do a few case brand studies using a new resource called "Brand New".
"Brand New" is a subscription-based website in which my teacher Daniel has kindly set up accounts for the students of our class. On this website, there are many reviews and critiques of logos and brand identities from companies of all walks of life, and it is an extremely valuable resource. While reading the "about" section of the website, I found a section of text that describes the website pretty well in a humorous manner;
"Brand New has been published since October of 2006 when it was spun-off from the now unpublished Speak Up. In the glory days of Speak Up some of our most ardent discussions happened around redesigns of logos but that same passion that ignited those threads was a turn off for some readers who claimed they were simply bitch-fests. As a patch, we decided to move those logo bitch-fests to their own site so that we could all bitch merrily about logos. This focused energy turned out to be quite an attraction and Brand New has become a very active reflection of the world of corporate and brand identity. And, while we do all bitch quite a bit, the opinions presented throughout amount to something of real value for those in the field." - Brand New
In this case studies task, I'm going to be looking at brands that have a similarity to my own bank brand and try to state what makes that particular brand effective. In particular, I will be doing 3 small case studies with brands that;
This case study is a little tricky as I don't yet know what colour I want for my brand. I'm considering purple as PRISMA is a prism and in theory, multicoloured, and purple is a good natural base colour that has a blend of red and blue.
However, nothing is set in stone yet as I know with new information and research my ideas might change, but for the purpose of this case study I will look at another brand with as their primary colour purple.
A really interesting brand I found was "MINDSHARE".
Mindshare is a global media agency network that is responsible for providing global marketing billings and campaigns using the power of the media, allowing their clients' businesses to become digital. Back in December 2021, the company had a rebranding, but much of the focus on the colour purple remained the same. This highlights the importance of the colour purple to the brand, but could also be that it's so ingrained into the brand that changing it could hurt the brand identity itself.
Starting by looking at the older branding on the left. From the first outlook, the darker purple in the background provides good contrast against the white text, which also ensures reliability. From this deeper shade of purple, I'm thinking about professionalism and wisdom, but the purple has brought an air of creativity that hints at Mindshare's creative media aspect. The professionalism aspect for the brand is very important as mindshare is no small company, it is a huge firm with over 10,000 employees across 116 offices in 86 countries. With any large company, professionalism and reputation become very important as they deal with large amounts of client interactions and is sometimes at the centre stage of their work. Potential clients need to know that the firm is professional and trustworthy before investing their time and money into the firm. Especially if they are to trust a media company to make their brand digital.
I really like the deeper shade, I think it conveys the message of professionalism and trustworthiness very well, while the colour of purple itself shows that the firm is rather versatile and creative rather than ridged.
looking at the newer branding style, I can defiantly see that company is trying to appeal to its creative aspect more. What I think is interesting is that while the colour of the older branding is duller and neutral, their newer branding is brighter and leans slightly towards a more feminine colour palette. I wonder if the more feminine colour choices are a deliberate decision to make the brand look more "friendly" and "creative". Also, I have noticed that in a lot of brands, the brighter colours attract a younger audience, thus making the brand look younger. For me, the brighter colours of the newer brand certainly look better on screen, but the feel of the brand has changed quite a bit. With the brother colours and the more playful typeface, Mindshare's new brand design doesn't seem to focus on a sense of legacy and professionalism, rather to me it looks like the branding of the new creative startup. Not that it is a bad thing, of course, it can be argued that the new brand design is a breath of fresh air for the company, but I think the modern look doesn't distinguish itself as a large, reputable company among a sea of other modern creative companies.
what I think really distinguishes the new brand design is not the colour, but the application and versatility of the wordmark to form different shapes;
