This piece was written for the first issue of an ICFAI University journal.
Corporate Identity guru Wally Olins describes identity design as "strategy made visual". Today, it is widely realized that the continuing success of organisations depends on how they are perceived by their stakeholders, and hence how it communicates (or doesn't) assumes criticality in shaping these perceptions.
Design is etymologically linked to planning - we design not only physical artefacts like products, buildings and cities but also our lives and experiences such as portfolios, weddings and even holiday trips. In the context of communication, then, design involves the physical manifestation of the message - traditionally in the visual and tactile domain, but now not limited to these senses alone. Earlier, it was thought that advertising equalled communications design but now it is but a subcomponent of corporate communications.
Excellence in design of the corporate brand can dramatically vitalise the organisation in many ways - it provides its investors and customers with a powerful, inspiring and memorable visual mnemonic to identify it with, awes competitors with a statement of strength and confidence, attracts suppliers and talented employees to seek affiliation with it, provides a moving and attractive emblem of pride and belonging to its employees - in short, affecting each stakeholder segment proactively.
Examples of brilliant brand design abound - from the 1958 Air-India Maharaja to 199X Wipro. I have had the good fortune to have the opportunity to work on two brands that have become practically household names all over India - the 50 years of independence logo in 1997 and the ICICI group identity redesign in 199X. Globally, of course, design has been deployed strategically in business for far longer, and has thrown up some memorable brand designs including the Prudential rock, the Qantas kangaroo and the National Geographic frame - three random choices from a galaxy of excellence.
What makes a logo successful, and how can one work with the designer to ensure that your logo design is most likely to succeed? As in the case of any artistic endeavour, there are no easy formulas and yet we are all capable of recognising a superb design intuitively when we see it.
Typically, a great logo embodies three qualities - salience, memorability and contribution.
Salience means its ability to "stand out" and be noticed in whatever context it is displayed. In a clutter of billboards, the Hutch campaign stands out in terms of salience by its large swathes of white space - however, I am not as convinced about the effectiveness of the Hutch logo itself.
Memorability is the tendency to "stick" into our subconscious memory - and contrary to what you may expect, it is often something very annoying and discordant that sticks better than something that is harmonious and unobtrusive.
Contribution is what the logo actually "conveys" about the brand - usually, a statement of its positioning. So, the State Bank logo depicts a lock and key - tapping into our need for security and safety for our savings.
However, this is easier said in hindsight than done prior to the fact, because there are many pitfalls in the process of designing a logo, and managing the design process, that end up in the thousands of unoriginal, uninspiring and mediocre brands we see every day.
One big impediment in attaining brilliance is ego - of both designer and client. Often, the designer becomes defensive and superior in trying to justify her/his creative work, which prevents her/him from accepting feedback. Equally often, the client confuses her/his own personal preferences and aspirations into the decision-making process. The classic symptom of either of these conditions occurring is when this sentence is heard spoken loudly in the presentation: "I like it/ I don't like it." Both designer and client need to religiously keep in mind that while logo designs should indeed be liked by everyone, it is far more important that they are effective.
This means that both sides have to put in painstaking research into profiling stakeholders, defining the business strategy and positioning, and understanding market trends and competition prior to commencing any design work. Having done this, each design proposed needs to be assessed against this backdrop - in addition to the "like" factor. As stated earlier, it is important that the logo be liked - but by the key stakeholders - and this also needs to be researched and fed back into the decision-making process. All too often, this rigourous process is dispensed with or given a tokenistic treatment, leading to the generation of logos that perhaps the client and designer both "like" - but is not really generating interest and goodwill for the organisation.
Arvind Lodaya, 2003
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