The importance of a company’s name and brand

A common misconception is that a company’s brand is purely graphic design territory.

Branding — everyone knows it’s important, but what exactly is it? It derives from the notion of farmers making a mark on their livestock. Paint is the preferred method used today but in the past, farmers would burn a symbol, letter or emblem onto their cattle and other animals to signify ownership. The word ‘brand’ derives from the German for burned: verbrannt.

The dictionary definition of branding is: “Promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising and distinctive design.” This loose description doesn’t quite cut it for me. A brand is much more than a look or feel of a company — it’s the business’s personality, its ethos, its philosophy and how these principles are communicated to consumers and other businesses.

A BUSINESS AND ITS NAME
Someone once told me “A good name can be chosen, a great one is earned.”

This notion is one that I feel is very important to branding as a whole. Apple have a logical ethos, people associate them with sophistication, functionality and cutting edge technology and this can all be communicated to someone via that neat little iconic logo. It’s simple enough, now, for Apple to simply apply that logo to a product in order to persuade consumers that the object they’re seeing is sophisticated, functional, and cutting edge. But this effect was earned and supported extensively by marketing and advertising.

Sure, the logo itself is, in layman’s terms, ‘sleek’, ‘simple’ and ‘cool’, all adjectives that signify the intended characteristics, but if it wasn’t for a unified brand ethos, well-communicated company principles and a long-term marketing strategy, that little apple and indeed the word ‘Apple’ would be just that: fruit.

DESIGN
So, now I’m going to contradict myself a little. Graphic designers spend their entire working lives trying to communicate meaning through the use of logos, typefaces, imagery, semiotics and iconography. A huge amount of thinking and effort goes into the storytelling of a brand’s image. That little logo that Apple uses has a story; it’s not just a fruit with a hugely successful company behind it.

CNN tell the story better than I do:
The logo on the back of your iPhone or Mac is a tribute to Alan Turing, the man who laid the foundations for the modern-day computer, pioneered research into artificial intelligence and unlocked German wartime codes.

His death, a decade after the end of the war, provides the link with Apple. Unrecognised for his work, facing jail for gross indecency and humiliated by estrogen injections intended to ‘cure’ his homosexuality, he bit into an apple he had laced with cyanide. He died in obscurity on June 7, 1954, 10 years and a day after the Normandy landings, which made copious use of intelligence gleaned by his methods.

And so, the story goes, when two Stanford entrepreneurs were looking for a logo for their brand new computer company, they remembered Turing and his contribution to their field. They chose an apple — not a complete apple, but one with a bite taken out of it.

This whole concept poses a new challenge to graphic designers. When a client comes to us with a brief, we have to sell them a story, not just a pretty picture. We have to tell them why this principle, this essential design element, represents their company. Clients have to believe in their brand because it’s much more than a ‘particular, distinctive design’.

CONTROL

So a brand is both something that evolves over time as well as something that is specifically designed at the company’s birth. But how much control do companies have over these communications? Recent history tells us companies are willing to hand over more and more control to their customers and clients; social networks and sharing sites are driven by their content and therefore ultimately their consumers. Sites like etsy and threadless allow users to design their own clothes and accessories which ultimately represent the company and its philosophies. Truth be told, the Apple story is but a myth.

Rob Janoff who designed the logo back in late 70′s said: I’m afraid it didn’t have a thing to do with [the Turing story]…It’s a wonderful urban legend.

The story of a brand is part of the evolution of a company. Its logo, typeface and overall design meaning constantly changes. A good brand is all about good business — or is it? You must first have the foundations for a good business which lies in its business ethos, philosophy and marketing strategy, and the way in which these principles are communicated through the company’s brand. Communication is key here, both within the company, between the company and their designers as well as ultimately and most importantly, between the company and its consumers.

Image credit: Jack Dorsey CC 2.0