{"id":1521,"date":"2013-03-13T23:48:31","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T23:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trufcreative.com\/?p=1521"},"modified":"2023-12-05T10:01:53","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T18:01:53","slug":"how-to-work-with-an-existing-brand-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trufcreative.com\/how-to-work-with-an-existing-brand-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Work With an Existing Brand Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In our creative past working at big ad agencies in New York, we\u2019d often receive brand guidelines from the corporate office and be required to work with them. When creating our ad campaign or direct mail piece, part of the assignment was to ensure all guidelines were being followed for logo position, color palette, typography, layout style, photography style, etc. It\u2019s challenging and fun to be given a certain set of rules to work within and we feel there\u2019s an art to following guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, we sometimes work with companies who want to redesign their website, but not their brand identity. So, what do you do? You need to be able to take what they have and expand on it, evolve it and make it look new, yet retain the origins so it looks like it came from the same company. This can be done in many ways, but they all have something in common: determine the essence of the brand and present that in the best possible way. Here are 4 things you want to look at and questions you might ask yourself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) LOGO \u2013 Figure out a new way to present it:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n<\/section>\n\n\n

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\u2013 Does it go inside a shape?
\u2013 If it\u2019s inside of a shape, do you take it out?
\u2013 Can you crop it differently?
\u2013 Do you add more \u201cair space\u201d around it to give it a different feeling?
\u2013 Could the logo be smaller or set on a new background color?
\u2013 Does it even need the name next to it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) COLORS \u2013 Figure out what the color palette is:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n<\/section>\n\n\n

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\u2013 What is the main brand color?
\u2013 Are there too many colors being used?
\u2013 Could the palette be simplfied?
\u2013 Could you add another color to evolve the palette, yet still retain its origins?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) TYPOGRAPHY \u2013 Pick a nice typeface for the brand:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n<\/section>\n\n\n

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\u2013 Choose a custom web font that helps illustrate the brand\u2019s personality
\u2013 How are the headlines typeset?
\u2013 What size font are you using?
\u2013 What combinations of fonts work best together?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) LAYOUT \u2013 present the elements in a new way:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 What grid system will you use?
\u2013 What is the main focal point on the page?
\u2013 Will the headlines be prominent or the photography?
\u2013 How does the logo and navigation look flush left, right or centered?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 1 : American Friends Musee d\u2019Orsay \u2013 Before \/ After<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n<\/section>\n\n\n

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AFMO\u2019s<\/a> logo and color palette was designed for them by Musee d\u2019Orsay<\/a> and it was important to keep this on the new site. When asked to redesign their site, we completely reorganized their content and utilized the gorgeous artwork they had in their library to create a visually dynamic and sophisticated look. The logo was removed from the boxed-in header and the tagline was treated differently, giving the logo space to \u201cbreathe\u201d which immediately gives it a new feeling. We determined that the main brand colors were teal and light blue. The beige background was lightened to create a neutral canvas for the paintings, and we decided to stay away from the Eggplant Purple (which tends to feel young) and the Olive green (which felt a little drab.) Light Blue was also used for hover styles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When looking at the artwork of this era, most of the painters are using Yellow Ochre. We decided to introduce this to the color palette for headlines and buttons. It picks up the color in the paintings beautifully and creates an overall cohesive look. In this way, we breathed new life into their existing brand identity and presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 2 : Louis Vuitton \u2013 Old \/ New<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n<\/section>\n\n\n

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Another great example of this on a global scale is the Louis Vuitton Spring 2013 collection by Marc Jacobs. Working with the original\u00a0Damier<\/a>\u00a0signature pattern created in 1889, he modernized the checkerboard by doing a hybrid \u201cmod meets twenties\u201d collection that plays on the idea of repetition. Girls wore coordinating outfits and came down escalators two-by-two to create a much buzzed-about show. The point is, he\u2019s working with a brand with strong heritage but every season continues to use the existing patterns and motifs to create something new and exciting. And it all still feels like LV.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"TR\u00dcF : How to Work With an Existing Brand Identity","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trufcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trufcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trufcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trufcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trufcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1521"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/trufcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6567,"href":"https:\/\/trufcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521\/revisions\/6567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trufcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trufcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trufcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trufcreative.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}