Living brand identities
Brand identity is becoming increasingly iconic, bold and instantly recognisable with very clear communication in single colours or own-able shapes. Think of the Heinz label shape and the Coca-Cola wave, which can also double as a portfolio anchor design in which brand extensions can live. With a growing demand for brand experiences in the digital and physical space, brands are more than ever required to behave flexible. It is important for brand identities to easily adept their logo’s into whatever is the relevant theme at the time among their audiences.
Be it rainbow colours to show support during Pride month, or changing the colours showing solidarity for Ukraine. This adaptability gives brand the tools to not only tell but also show their involvement in their audiences worlds, become part of the conversations. It’s not enough anymore to just make a product people want. It’s expected of brands to take responsibility and engage with the world of their audiences in a much more direct fashion.
A certain flexibility in brand identity also gives a creative freedom, enabling brands to create visually captivating and living designs. This trend had been around for a while, with the MTV logo variations being a good example. More recently, flexibel brand identity seems to be taking another step. The possibilities of generative design have enabled brands and designers to actively create near endless designs within certain parameters. For the first time, these tools are used to actively have people engage with brands and also their brand identity.
Most recently, we saw ad agency MullenLowe turn their iconic squid logo into a living brand identity, inviting its approximately 4000 employees to create their own unique version of the icon for personal use such as business cards. This new approach to branding is well timed to fit in with a new paradigm where the user of a brand is part owner and co-creator of its identity. Let’s hope to see this unique and shared way of brand innovation more, as I believe the democratization of brands is going to play a very important role in the foreseeable future. As said before, new generations want brands which actively engage and interact with the world around them, taking on responsibility and shaping culture.
Disclaimer: I was not involved in any of the featured work in this post in any way.
