Deconstruction at work
Chris Green Media
The big trend in brand design in recent years has been deconstruction.
That means simplifying your brand – keeping it clean, visible, functional and subtle – not shouting too loud, using garish colours or being overtly abrasive.
Take Apple. Their multi-coloured 80’s logo is long gone in preference to a gradual fade to grey and even a reversed-out white.
In fact, you can barely see it on some Apple products – but it works as is a perfect signify of what their products are about – clean design, ease of use, simplicity of function.
The heart of a good deconstructed brand is vector imaging – common colours, fonts and logos that provide maximum awareness and visibility for Google to handle and which work consistently in print.
We recently rebranded a fairly reserved financial advice practice in order to bring them up to date.
Arden Associates hadn’t changed their logo for some time – and, frankly, it showed.
A simple green forest (of Arden, presumably) image looked a bit washed out and outdated. The colours couldn’t punch through when reproduced online or in print.
Those issues are immediately minimised with vector treatment and deconstruction technique.
But there’s more.
All businesses need to futureproof their brands to stay on top of their marketing.
It can also lift, inspire and point the way ahead. A contemporary design that everyone can rally behind can motivate, attract new people, help win new business and provide an overall fresher image and congruent public face.
In Arden’s case, we wanted to provide a confident, forward thinking brand.
Complicated design can confuse. No one in financial services wants to display fuzzy thinking or lack of clarity. They also need to communicate trust. Big time.
That’s why we offered a range of contemporary options, using softer, clean-cut images, colours and fonts - warm and personable but confident and understated (lower case) with plenty of choice for the client to help fine down.
Arden Associates partner David Carter said: “Initially we wanted our current brand to evolve rather than change completely so are pleasantly surprised to end up with a totally new look.
"The expertise offered by CGM and the designs and ideas presented highlighted how dated our current branding was.
"Being able to select from a range of designs and then fine tune the final choice helped ensure we ended up with more fresh and modern feel.
"We are delighted with the new design which is flexible and adaptable for different mediums – particularly online - and we are excited about the launch of the new brand which will be rolled out shortly.”
In this case, developing Arden’s new brand has been as much about the process as the eventual design.
Involvement is an essential ingredient to winning buy in to the overall project.
The result is a new contemporary brand that will kick start a new future for Arden.
To find out how CGM’s creative team can transform your brand, contact CGM on 01905 754336 or email info@chrisgreenmedia.co.uk