Project 3: Public Document Redesign

Targeted Audience: Couples

                For our redesigned brochure and the second visual document—the Flyer, we had decided to target couples. Therefore, we had applied a theme that is warm and loving, but at the same time, we didn’t want to lose our focus on the cruise part, so we included pictures to support the main focus. The colors that we used in the two documents are mainly blue and green for the cruise, purple and pink for the sweet and love. We had added more elements of romance to capture couples attention. For example, there are pictures of couples on the beach or playing in the water, this to give them the space for imagination of themselves being there. We thought that the original brochure had too many empty spaces with white backgrounds which made the brochure look very bland. We had edited some of the text to make it easier to understand and apply.

These three companies have many different things in common. Throughout the three PDF’s, the companies show the important ways to make sure the companies are represented in a classy and professional fashion. One way to make sure this is possible is by making sure the logo is only printed in the company colors and with the correct font. It can only be printed on certain objects and only be used with company permission. It is important for these companies to keep their logos and fonts intact because that is how the company keeps its integrity and is able to stay within their own identity. I think it is especially important to note how these companies make sure everything about their company is represented in the fashion that they have approved. Even with presentational features such as power points, the charts and graphs can only be made with pre-approved colors. Lastly, I think it is important to note that even when the logos and such are in black and white, they must be done in a certain way.

I think that the thing I noticed most about each of these company brand identities and guidelines is that they all have strict usage rules. Each of these companies controls their identity greatly. Their brand labels have size, typography, color, and direction requirements. Only certain colors may be used for their logos, and the logos must fit a certain size requirement depending on the type of document they are used in. There are examples from each of the companies on how their logos should NOT be used. The logo font must never change, and some of the companies, like Sovereign, even created a color palette with their own colors, like "India red" to be used in the documents. I thought that was interesting. I also thought it was interesting at just how specific the companies were with their examples; each of these documents provided very visual examples.

However strict this is, I believe that it is (obviously) important for a company to maintain their brand logo and have their documents looking consistent and professional. I think that a visual identity can help a company maintain a loyal and satisfied customer base; a brand is built up over years and years of time, and they are only successful when the communications of the brand and the experiences customers or consumers have are in alignment. 

Surprised about the work that these companies go to and the effort behind the look. I thought that Power Architecture would have had the best of the information visual identity just because architecture is a visual substance, but not the case within these three articles.
 
 With the best and most informative was The United Way. They covered the most and everything. It could have been because it was the first article that I had looked at, but still, with a comparison, they covered it all. Power Architecture really and basically covered the logo, that’s it, that’s all. Sovereign Brand worked the same way, by only really covering the logo, but they had covered it a bit better be containing primary use logo and the secondary use logo.
 
 My favorite and the most informative with The United Way was the fact that and how they had covered their topics. They had covered the support elements like typography, imagery, and grids which the two others had not touched. But, visa versa, The United Way did not cover logos, so fair enough.
 

These three documents have many things in common. They all state their companies’ missions, goals, and cultures. Most of the time, they explain the meaning of their logos to give the designer a better understanding of the company. The way they control their visual identity is to include different styles of their logos showing their preferences, they also include many examples of what they do not want, so there’s less chance of the designer making too big of a mistake. Usually they use color, background color, size, alignment, etc. for details of the design, to make their documents look consistent with one another. A company’s visual identity helps express that company’s personality or culture, because the logos are usually developed according to it. For example, the United Way had changed its logo meaning a new approach to the future while preserving the heritage of their past. The brand characteristics include caring, inspiring, trustworthy, and approachable, which is why there is the rainbow of hope, hand of support, and a person with opening arms in the logo. I think guidelines and examples that show what is unacceptable are very important, sometimes showing what you don’t want is more effective than trying to describe what you want.

            It seems like the most important thing to each of these companies, when controlling visual identity is to have consistent logo colors as well as consistent and correct use of the company logo.  Furthermore, the companies have a number of set color schemes that should be used in company documents.  I would imagine they provide specific templates to employees to use when creating documents.  I know when the bank I worked at provided templates for Microsoft Powerpoint as well as different Microsoft Word templates for specific documents.  It made it very easy for employees to use the correct layout, color schemes, and fonts, so as to follow the visual identity of the company.  I think a company’s visual identity helps express a company’s personality by using color schemes and fonts that help convey the image they want people to have of the company.  For example, United Way states that only pictures that display the United Way logo prominently should be used in documents.  In the picture in the United Way document, it shows an example of a United Way funded activity, but also displays the United Way logo, so as to provide more avenues of exposure for the company.  I think it is very important to have consistent colors when using logos for companies.  Using the correct colors gives the logo a sense of legitimacy.  When irregular colors are used, it makes the document lack legitimacy because it could be a sign of a forgery or a fake document that isn’t really sent out by the company.  Overall, visual identity can be very important to people’s perspective of a company.  

By reading these three documents, it is very obvious that visual identity is very important to these companies. Without each company having their own unique identity, their design has the ability to be duplicated and manipulated with out much thought. I found interesting how Power’s guidelines were so inflexible. I found myself comparing to designs several times to figure out the differences between acceptable and unacceptable displays. Each company made sure that they clearly described the name of the brand, the words that can be added to the normal logo and also how not to use the design. Also, each company made sure that these guideline was clearly understood by giving many examples of how the logo should be positioned, listing the color options and how they all look put together.

Visual identity is very important in today’s atmosphere of large, powerful companies that need to control their image. All three documents spend a lot of time describing their brand labels, markings, and tag lines. Every single official document that the entire company puts into the public should have all three of these things. They are important for identifying documents as official, and recognizable for the person reading them. Secondly the documents focus on phrasing and appropriate use of the brand’s name, the brand’s tag line, and when not to use certain words in phrases. For example, staff shouldn’t use part of the brand name (i.e. united, power, or sovereign) in a sentence without it directly concerning the company itself, without it having another connotation. Lastly, the documents describe appropriate fonts and text sizes. The headers should all be in a certain text, as well as a certain color. This makes headers for documents across the company uniform and professional. It also makes organization of the documents easier. Without uniformity across all of a brand’s documents, the brand could be seen as disorganized, unprofessional, and inaccessible and that is what makes this information so crucial. 

These documents have a few things in common. Every company picked one logo that is the best fit for their identity which is used at beginning of each section.  Each document explains how the company arrived at that logo.  All three PDFs show samples of what the logo should look like, alternates of the main logo, and samples of what the logo should not look like.  Each logo that I have seen does say something about that company, and these three look professional.  The United Way logo has a person standing with his arms open in seeming friendly.  That is an excellent logo for that company because they are trying to help the less fortunate.  The logo for power has the name right in it with the symbol which shows a looping band.  The thing I find important about all these logos is the way not to use these logos.  United way as an example shows twelve different ways not to use their logo, and then they show eight different unacceptable uses of their logo with a tagline.  I do not think it would matter if it was tilted a little bit, but some of the ways the logo is presented makes it look unattractive.

All three companies seem to be really dedicated to what their logo stands for and means.  A logo may be the most recognizable item that a company has.  Sometimes their logo may be the only thing anyone every sees from different types of companies and it is because of that, it has to be perfect.  The different guidelines that a company may use is surely subjective to what exactly they are trying to portray with their logo, but none the less some type of guidelines should be used for all companies.  You have to get your point across visually.  If you are a high tech company a little kid’s crayon box might not be a good symbol for you and on the other hand if you are a non-profit youth organization you don’t want to use symbols that do not involve that specific target audience. 

                Also the companies would outline how, when, where, and why their logo may used.  It is important to have a good logo but if you do not know how to use it then it will be worthless to the organization.  Especially elaborate logos with many colors and dimensions, sometimes on a business document these need to be simplified to look more professional.  But with that in mind it still needs to be your logo.  A company should be able to have variations within their logo to apply to every situation.

The thing that stood out most in the articles is using the same logo on all materials. The company does not want the logo changed because a logo is used to identify a brand. Also, they want to be sure that they always use the same color scheme so that the logo is more identifiable. There is a lot of thought and planning that goes into creating a company logo and deciding how it should be displayed. The companies took deliberate steps to create their logos. Also, each company had specifications as to how big their logo should be. This is important because you won’t want the logo to be too small to see, but you also don’t want the logo to be the only thing that there is room for on the document. Another important aspect of these articles is the inclusion of the company’s personal statement. This shows that the company does and what their goal is. Their goal is important when advertising so that they know who they should aim at.

These companies all have similar characteristics in the way they protect the use of their logo. They all discuss how to use the symbol and how not to use it. They look at the background color, outline of the logo, writing style for words, order, and many other meticulous things. They are very strict about their logo being used the wrong way, because it represents their company and they want it to be unique and to show that they care about the details. They all stressed the same features that I mentioned as to show that they care just as much as the next company about the use of their logo. United Way definitely went into a lot more detail in how they don’t want their logo misused in any way. I think the biggest thing about most of the documents was that they wanted their logo to stand out and not get lost in distracting backgrounds, and not be altered. Power Architecture covered exactly how much spaced was required around all sides of their logo to make sure it stands out and doesn’t get lost in the middle of something. They were also very careful to point out color schemes, borders, and font styles to make sure they were not disturbed when used.  I found it tedious when United Way showed that they don’t allow any alterations in terms of order of all the elements and angle of the logo.

In reading over these articles, most of them seemed very similar. Each article displayed what their company was all about along with their personal mission statement. The personal mission statements focused on the goals of the companies. The main focus of the brochures was elaborating on how the logos were made along with how it is displayed. It is neat how each company put intricate details into their logos with such thought-out meaning. Logos are a huge part of the companies advertising campaign.  The visual aspect of a brochure is a big part of how affective the ad is. The overall eye-appeal of a logo is correlated to the overall performance of the company.  After reading these articles, I came away from it thinking a lot of more in-depth about each company’s logo. I think that I now will view logos with an open mind in order to interpret the overall meaning.