There are a handful of qualified branding and strategic communication design firms you could choose to work with, but what questions should you be asking to help you choose the company that is the best fit for your needs?

At Industrial Brand we are defined by our clients so it is critical that we evaluate them as closely as they do us. But what does a good fit actually look like in relation to hiring a brand and design company like Industrial Brand, and what questions could you be asking? What criteria does your company use to consider ‘fit’?

What do you need?
If you only need a team to execute production for you, a strategy-oriented firm like Industrial Brand will not provide the best value. Why? We work closely in partnership with our clients to learn as much as possible about the company and industry in the time that is allocated, while respecting that our clients possess the core expertise within their respective fields. We request the same from you. Consider the type of client you will be and what you need from your branding and design firm—it is better to be clear and honest up front as it will result in a better working relationship and final outcome.

Talk to current and past clients.
While it is important we have great relationships with our clients, remaining objective while asking the difficult questions to better understand your company is equally necessary. It also leads to the most effective work. It’s said that there is no such thing as a bad testimonial, though it is still advisable to review them. Then request to talk to those specific people directly. Ask these clients to tell you the good and the bad of the project and process in their experience.

Is the portfolio a good fit?
Our methodology and experience can be applied to many types of businesses and client, yet we specialize in brand strategy for professional service firms such as architects, engineers and lawyers. That doesn’t mean we only work for this type of client, yet we’re not always the most appropriate choice for some projects.

A good starting point to evaluate an agency’s suitability is to review their work. We all like pictures, but look beyond the pretty visuals. Read the case studies and understand the strategy that created the platform from which the designs were created. It is this strategy and deep questioning that leads to designs that will resonate with your target audience and will be able to sustain and be effective over time. If a company is only showing nice visuals of the finished work and not explaining how they got there, be prepared to dig deeper to ensure they have the ability to do the foundational research that makes the difference between nice looking design and strategic design.

Ask the right questions.
Unless you want to hire a cookie-cutter design firm that works from re-usable templates, it is unlikely that you will find information pertaining to budgets and timelines on their website. No matter how simple the project, a good firm will take the time to ask detailed questions and probe deeply to develop an understanding of what is expected before they can give you an estimated budget range. In essence, if you are looking for a customized approach, the pricing will be too. At Industrial Brand, clients often engage our services to participate in an initial scope of work discovery, analyzing the current situation, the perceived problem(s) and then making recommendations on scope and clearly defined budgets.

Who is interviewing whom?
In your search for a suitable firm, ask them to describe their research phase, who will they talk to, what questions they may ask and what they do with this information. The answers here will give you an understanding of the firm’s ability to uncover real insights, and how they use them.

For us, our goal is always to understand as much as possible about you and your business from the start. Much as you expect to be asking most of the questions, we will eventually be asking you a lot of questions too; interviewing your board of directors, staff, customers and vendors to gain insights into your business. As an established company you will probably know who your target audience is, but do you know what they think and feel about you, what their experience of your company is via all your touchpoints? Same goes with your clients and staff, what do they ‘really’ think about you? We have found that our interviewing process and style encourages people to be honest with their answers, even though some of this information may be hard to hear. It is this level of insight and information that can be the foundation for positive change.

Engage an engaged firm.
Once a company has retained our services, we start the process with a Phase Zero meeting, an enquiry into your current business, current challenges, your desired goals, staff, clients and so on. This is where business meets design so to speak.

As an example of what you can expect in this type of session, here are a few sample questions that we typically ask:

• Where do you stand in your industry?
• Who are your competitors and on what criteria do you judge them as your competition?
• What do you do uniquely well and what differentiates you in your industry and market?
• If you were asked to write a statement that reflected your company’s values and promise, what might it be?
• If you had to choose just five words that describe your company what would they be?

One final thing to consider: How will you measure the success of working with a branding and design firm? The answer will help you define the relationship, project parameters, areas of responsibility and help both parties remain focused on producing real results.

Did you know the name Apple was inspired while Steve Jobs was pruning Gravenstein apple trees on his friend’s orchard? According to the recent Steve Jobs biography, Apple Computer could have just as easily been called Personal Computing International. Had it been, who knows if it would have met with the same iconic success.

The Apple name, along with others such as Virgin and The Gap are not immediately intuitive because they evoke something about the company’s unique positioning. And they are risky. If you think about it, the word virgin has negative connotations, especially for an airline: new, untested, and young to list a few. The naysayers in the boardroom would certainly pick these out as an argument against such a name. Those with a different vision might say it perfectly captures the spirit of a new entrant into a category dominated by sameness and mediocrity. When you think of the possibilities for a positive disruption to the airline (and others) business, ‘virgin’ could also mean new, fresh, energetic, willing and young.

Naming success in this case is all about how the name is defined in the minds of the consumer, and creating a link between the name and the company’s positioning.

Evocative names are some of the most exciting to create, but the reality is, they are only one type of name, and admittedly, not all types are as exciting. Why? There are many variables that go into determining the right name for a company or product: What industry is it? Does it need to be descriptive; What is the personality of the firm?; Are there any legal or regulatory considerations that need to be conformed to? These are just a few of the things that need to be considered when we are doing naming for our clients.

Truth is, a name can come from anywhere and anyone. Yes, you can name your own company, but what you are missing is an exhaustive search and a deeper development past the obvious names, and in the process, perhaps even validation for an earlier inspiration. In seeking name options for our clients at Industrial Brand we pursue multiple streams of naming types. We may explore functional names that are merely descriptive of what the company does or sells, made up names, hybrids composed of two or more words, evocative names such as those mentioned above and any number of other name types in our quest to fully explore all the options. The quantity of names generated cannot be underestimated—it is in fact crucial.

It is at this point that engaging a firm experienced with naming adds the most value. Finding the best name is only partially about generating options. Sorting and filtering the names down to a select shortlist requires experience and skill, and objective analysis. Subjective analysis should not come into this process. “I don’t like it” or “This reminds me of…” are not relevant here and are not representative of how the target audience may see it. The goal is to land on something that will resonate with the market and support your goals for the company.

At Industrial Brand we don’t attempt naming for a client without first doing extensive research into the client’s industry, their organization and competition. Armed with this, and the raw names we generated, we can then begin to filter them.

We use a nine point matrix to score each name on a scale. Some of the elements we scrutinize are as simple as appearance and sound: Does it look good?; Are there any awkward letter combinations, etc.?; Does it sound good when spoken?; Will it be easy to mispronounce or be misheard?; Is it a word that’s uncommon or hard to spell (by the way, not always a bad thing)?

Other filters are more complex to analyze: Things such as how much meaning the name has, and how deeply layered other meanings are, distinctiveness within the industry and from the competition and whether the name is flat and lifeless or energetic. Is it corporate and impersonal, or genuine and warm?—there’s a reason and fit for each.

Ultimately though, the name has to be available. Canada only, USA, Global? The wider the reach, the more complex and less likely it will be that the chosen name is available. In addition, finding a suitable URL is vitally important today. In fact, we’ve had clients whose priority was owning the root name dot com URL for the company, so that dictated the name they ultimately selected.

We’ve had to get creative with URL selection and consider what URL is available for chosen names before presenting options to the client. If it seems there’s a possibility for acquisition of a desired URL, then we will keep the name under consideration. Ideally, we want the .ca, .com, .co, .net and any other domains that are relevant to the client.

Finally, working with an intellectual property specialist to ensure rights and ownership of a trademark name is almost always advisable. This applies to the name as well as the final logo created. A good trademark lawyer will also suggest options and advise modifications to avoid potential conflict. Considering the money, time and effort that will be invested in turning the name into your brand, ensuring legal ownership at the outset is a must. No one wants to receive an unexpected cease and desist letter even part way down the rebranding road.

As a recent article about naming your child suggested, the name you give your offspring can determine their success later in life. While it seems implausible to imagine that the difference between “Steve”, “Mike” or “Larry” would matter all that much to your kid’s success, when you think about it in terms of your business, it’s not all that hard to envision that the choices you make at the start do have a magnifying effect on the trajectory of your enterprise.

It is doubtful that Steve Jobs, arrogant and visionary though he was, could ever have initially seen the company he named Apple ascend to such a massive and industry-dominating place in the world. Or maybe he did? Regardless, that name was the right choice, and the fit with the people, products, values and vision created a distinction that propelled the company to mythic status.

Recently a prospective new client asked us some rather pointed questions about the nature of what we provided as brand designers, the difference between branding and marketing, as well as some other rather insightful queries. This client was a privately owned, relatively young company experiencing success and growth in their industry, but recognized the need to raise their game and present themselves with marketing and communications in a way that better reflected who they are—or who they wanted to be. But they had very little experience working with a brand design consultancy like ours and wanted to better understand us and what we could offer them. These questions are often on the minds of many who consider hiring us, so I felt it beneficial to reproduce that dialogue as it transpired via email:

What is a brand anyway? And what is the difference between branding and marketing?
Terrific question. To be successful, a brand must consistently provide quality and satisfaction; it must meaningfully distinguish itself from the competition to create customer preference; it must be relevant, convenient and easily accessible to its target audience; and it must appeal to their individual lifestyles, attitudes and beliefs. A successful brand is one that generates loyalty and affection because it provides a level of quality, trust, convenience, assurance and allure for which the audience is willing to pay a premium.

Marketing is more about the planning and execution of the concept, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods/services to create satisfactory exchanges. Marketing most often involves translating the idea of a brand essence down to something practical or tangible to its audience, whereas a brand is a living organism that is built up or torn down in the minds of your customers over time—sometimes by way of a thousand seemingly insignificant gestures or experiences.

For example. if you think about a city, here are some examples of one of the thousand small gestures that might contribute to its brand: The condition of the roads, reports on crime, calibre of the buildings, events and activities on offer, reputation of the police, proximity to other places, ease of transportation, economic viability, etc…Businesses locate in, people move to and travel to places that are friendly, interesting, dynamic and provide advantageous conditions for their needs.

What happens if we have an inconsistent brand?
This question a little flawed. I understand what you’re asking, but assuming the quality of your product and service are unwavering, there really is no such thing as an “inconsistent brand”, just inconsistent delivery of the brand (promise)…or a brand breakdown. Remember, it’s the consumer perception of the elements that comprise their impression and that make up your brand. Thus, you are in control of consistency.

If your products are known to be highly functional, beautifully styled, reliably made and supported by friendly staff and a terrific service support, then what happens when a customer experiences a product failure and calls in, only to speak to a rude, inexperienced call centre employee in Manilla? That is not technically a breach of your brand quality or promise, but it places you at terrible risk. People love to talk. And word of mouth is not only a powerful way to build a brand, but perhaps the fastest way to bring it to its knees. It used to take significant effort to write letters to companies or newspapers to complain about a company, but these days the immediacy of publishing to the Internet and social media can result in PR nightmares for companies who don’t respond quickly.

Why rebrand? What are the benefits of a current, consistent and positive brand?
Very often the trigger for a rebrand by an organization or company is that the existing identity and other elements are dated and no longer reflect the products/services on offer. Essentially, there exists what is referred to as a “brand gap”, which is the difference between what is portrayed/perceived and reality/your aspirations.

There are many examples of successful rebranding in the civic realm. A recent example is Moosejaw, Saskatchewan. They recently went through a full branding initiative, retiring their tired old city crest and creating a terrific new logo and tagline “Surprisingly Unexpected” to better position the city as a great place to live, work and play. A bit of info and background on the process and results can be found here: http://www.moosejaw.ca/branding.shtml

What process do you take a company through when they come to you for help?
We have a design process we’re very proud of—but so does everyone else. Descriptions of process are a dime a dozen and reduce methodology to rhetoric. For us it all starts with ignoring assumptions, asking smart questions and listening carefully. We like to start with a “phase zero” exploration of the context of the situation, immersing ourself in your company so we can thoroughly audit the current health of your brand and identify real opportunities before making any sweeping promises about what we can do to help.

Once engaged, we take our clients through a comprehensive brand discovery, which involves a series of interviews, exercises and explorations as we work together—with the client—to identify who the client really is, what they stand for, and what they aspire to become. Comparing this with the initial research work, often including preliminary research interviews with staff and customers alike, we then identify any gaps between where the client is now and where they want to be.

Once a truly core expression of the company’s brand essence has been established and agreed upon, we convert this to a series of simplified questions that test the core attributes of any marketing or communication initiative. If client stakeholders can’t agree that something meets those brand filter questions, then it doesn’t belong in the brand universe. Simple as that.

In the end, like John Jay of Wieden + Kennedy says, there is no one proprietary process that anyone can claim works best and we must not impose our style onto our clients. The greatest thing we can offer to our clients is to listen carefully to them with empathy, explore their situations thoroughly to understand their truth and their soul, and then offer an expression of their true essence in a way that is relevant to a greater number of people. If there is a better way to express this, I’d love to hear it.

What are the core traits of a brand design firm we should be looking for?
There are a thousand ways to answer this question, but I will defer to Alina Wheeler’s book Designing Brand Identity, which posits that there are 12 traits that the best brand identity design firms have in common:

1. Strategic imagination. An ability to understand and align business goals with creative strategy and expression is critical.
2. Process focus. A disciplined process is used to foster collaboration, build trust, and ensure responsible decision-making and results.
3. Design excellence. Reducing a complex, meaningful idea to its visual essence requires skill, patience, and unending discipline, whether the endpoint is a symbol, a look and feel, or an integrated brand identity system.
4. Irrefutable logic. Creating a new system or brand architecture requires an ability to communicate a compelling case for change to any decision-maker, from the CEO to the director of marketing to a division head.
5. Alchemy. An ability to synthesize vast amounts of information and reduce it to a big idea. Also, an ability to cut through the clutter and see the “gold” in a marketing audit.
6. Empathy and insight. An ability to be collaborative and understand the perspectives of all stakeholders, to suspend judgment and transcend politics.
7. Flexibility and humor. An ability to keep an eye on the big picture despite constraints and challenges. A sense of humor always helps.
8. Mindfulness and curiosity. An awareness of what is going on in the wider world and insight into best practices and the branding landscape.
9. Tenacity. Boundless energy and the perseverance of a marathon runner are required to develop and refine key messages, new names, taglines, and branding guidelines.
10. Organization. Phase by phase, email by email, presentation by presentation, file by file, tracking and documentation are key.
11. Focus. First and foremost, the process must stay focused on the customer and their experience.
12. Passion. Passion fuels excellence and inspires brand engagement.

I think this list is quite accurate and feel good about the fact that most, if not all, of these traits can be found at Industrial Brand. But I acknowledge that it is often difficult for business professionals to assess these attributes when selecting a creative partner and “fit” is often a driving factor that is so hard to quantify or even sometimes describe. If we’re not going to have fun working together, we probably shouldn’t.

What do you expect from us during this process?
Another terrific question! First, we expect you to do some due diligence and make sure you choose your creative partner wisely. Hopefully there’s a great fit between our organizations, but if there isn’t, that’s OK if there isn’t. We can help you find the right design firm if we’re not it. We also request that you be as honest as you can with us and trust us as objective external experts.

The ROI and value in what we do relies on you giving us access to key stakeholders and decision-makers, as well as your staff and clients—otherwise it’s difficult for us to truly design a brand strategy or identity that will resonate internally and externally. Of course we also request that you provide us with timely responses and approvals, respect our production management process, and pay your invoices in a timely fashion—we’re not a bank.

What if you provide branding for us and things don’t improve?
This reminds me of a pet peeve about graphic designers—especially those who specialize in identity design. They often act as though they suffer from a mild god complex, as though they are “chosen ones” destined to save clients like Neo in the Matrix. Even the most talented communication designer, capable of producing spectacularly gorgeous logos and collateral, can’t guarantee that all your business problems will be saved with a new identity or marketing strategy. It’s super important, obviously—hell, we argue that it’s the ticket to the dance—but we’re not going to pretend that the secret is a new logo. Anyone who tells you that is full of shit.

As discussed earlier, we can work hard on your behalf to bore into the heart and soul of both you and your customer. From this learning we can use our training, experience and intuition to design a strategy and identity for your brand that will hopefully resonate and be relevant to your audience, but at the end of the day branding is really up to you. Until the day comes that we have complete authority and control over the quality of your product or service, and the way all your staff treat your customers, then we can’t truly provide “branding”. If we work together and things don’t improve, well then it’s likely that we missed something far more sinister than the look and feel of your logo and visual language used in your communications and marketing materials.

Client: I understand now, thank you. When can we get started?

WHERE

Sometimes our food world and our design world cross paths serendipitously.

After a few early iterations of a logo, and with an upcoming launch of their new iPhone app and City of Vancouver collaboration, Foodtree asked us to help rebrand.

IDEAS

Foodtree helps people to understand where their food comes from, who produces it, and who handles it as it travels from its source to their plate. Using an open, accessible platform via iPhone app, the intention is to empower people to make informed choices about the food they purchase and ultimately eat.

Although manifest as a website and mobile app to share fresh, mouth-watering photos of food in your community in a fun and simple way, Foodtree is a philosophical and fundamental shift in our approach to understanding the where, why and how of the food we consume. If information is power, then this is one of the key ways we as consumers can control our food supply future. Until we empower ourselves in this way, organic and healthy food will remain a novelty and just slightly out of reach of the mainstream.

Yet, mainstreaming this concern about where our food comes from and what’s in it, is precisely what’s required.

WORK

Rolled out simultaneously for launches in Vancouver and Colorado, we crafted a new logo, complete icon system for the app, signage and materials for on-site promotions.

Inspired by the symbols, styles and ideology of the Homesteading movement, the new identity hearkens to a simpler time of getting back to the land and a self-sufficient lifestyle. The hand-crafting and do-it-yourself ethic also produced a unique aesthetic evocative of an era past, but also in resurgence.

Our future may very well lie in the successful merger of a new integration of technology with the sustainable methods from our past. This is what Foodtree represents and the logo and its application is meant to evoke.

Launch website: www.foodtree.com

As passionate food freaks, it’s all too common to get caught up in the tastes and exoticism of what we are experiencing, rather than in what makes the most sense and is good. In fact, if you look at what makes something ‘gourmet’ these days, more often than not it’s the item that has taken great effort and care to produce and spent the least amount of time traveling from the farm to your table.

A good example of this in Vancouver is asparagus. Ask around and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who can tell you specifically that they’ve even tasted fresh, local asparagus. Seriously. Most of what people buy comes from Mexico or California with little thought to the seasonality, or what was done to it to get it to grow, or survive the long trip here. In contrast, the local season for asparagus is very short—a few weeks at best. If you’re not quick, and early, at the farmer’s market, you might not even realize we have an asparagus supply here!

Enter Foodtree.

Although manifest as a website and mobile app to share fresh, mouth-watering photos of food in your community in a fun and simple way, Foodtree is a philosophical and fundamental shift in our approach to understanding the where, why and how of the food we consume. If information is power, then this is one of the key ways we as consumers can control our food supply future. Until we empower ourselves in this way, organic and healthy food will remain a novelty and just slightly out of reach of the mainstream.

Yet, mainstreaming this concern about where our food comes from and what’s in it, is precisely what’s required.

Inspired by the symbols, styles and ideology of the Homesteading movement, the new identity hearkens to a simpler time of getting back to the land and a self-sufficient lifestyle. The hand-crafting and do-it-yourself ethic also produced a unique aesthetic evocative of an era past, but also in resurgence.

Our future may very well lie in the successful merger of a new integration of technology with the sustainable methods from our past. This is what Foodtree represents and the logo and its application is meant to evoke.

In November 2009 I wrote an article featured in Blitz Magazine about the award-winning brand identity and web project we created for Yaaway.com:

Separating Church and State (of Mind)
At some point in our lives, each of us learns the lesson that discussing religion or politics in mixed company can backfire. You can really set some people off and ruin a nice dinner party by sharing some personal convictions. This issue was a concern when we were first approached by the semi-religious organization, Yaaway Media, to design a brand identity for a community media website aimed at inspiring a more caring and wise world by sharing the messages and lessons of the man called Jesus—not so much the central figure in the Christian religion, but the historical figure whose sage wisdom is as relevant today as it has been for centuries. ‘Sound like an interesting challenge? We thought so too.

Keenly aware that our company is largely defined by its clients and projects, we always evaluate opportunities against a set of criteria that include profit, portfolio, ethics, and fit—but what about optics? At first, this situation felt a little like that which arose when gambling or pornography companies had approached us in the past, leading us to politely decline the work. No matter how you slice it, religion is a touchy topic. Our association with the project could have an impact our own brand, so we had to tread carefully.

Once the project was finished, and though proud of the results, members of the Industrial Brand team would hesitate before discussing the Yaaway project, making sure to explain the situation clearly to avoid it being summarily categorized as bible-thumper fodder. Our team members’ histories run the gamut of those raised in religious homes of various faiths, to those who are completely secular. We didn’t all share our client’s beliefs, but didn’t oppose them either, and following the completion of our initial assessment process, we were surprised at how quickly we became comfortable with the subject matter. The message was positive, and nobody was being duped.

Starting Out: Sunday School
To set the stage, the Yaaway team—a group of experienced media professionals—had already spent over a year (and considerable funds) building the framework and technology platform for a large online community, based on media sharing and social networking. The site was much like a mash-up between Facebook and YouTube, but with a difference: each video and post would ideally be centred on personal stories about Jesus. Not necessarily about Christianity, but Jesus himself. The site would be free to join and use, there were no plans for any advertising or revenue streams, and any user would be welcome to participate, regardless of perspective or religious affiliation.

You’re thinking: “So what’s the catch?” Well, we wondered the same thing, and were suspicious about a business model that didn’t include any plans for revenue. We did our homework and discovered that there really wasn’t a catch. Yaaway was a group that had the foresight to say, “Okay, there are a lot of issues and stereotypes surrounding religion these days. So how do we still get out the message of ‘doing good for your fellow man’, while side-stepping the existing public perception of Christianity?” The answer they came up with was to distill the core messages from the historical teachings of Jesus and avoid getting bogged down by the dogma of organized Christianity.

As the project got under way, we realized how unique the creative brief really was. How would we be able to create an identity suitable for a web-savvy community centreed on Jesus’ story and wisdom, while avoiding traditional religious icons? As a group of brand designers with varying perspectives on faith and religion, we were rather intimidated by this unusual situation. At the same time, we were excited by the design challenge to create an identity that expressed Jesus-centric sharing without looking ‘churchy’. Like many previous challenging projects, sticking to our proven design methodology lit the way.

Meet Jesus: Just a Guy With a Beard
As we began digging into the project, we learned that the core of this online community was a unique world view. They called it a ‘Spiritual Point of View’, focused on the “non-religious life of Jesus, the humble person who transforms people of every social class and culture with a spirit of truth and love.” We weren’t convinced that you could really separate Jesus from religion.

As designers in the branding business, we often toot our horns about building on the existing equity of a brand. This client had the exact opposite problem. It needed to distance itself from the existing brand perception of the Jesus camp—often viewed as right-wing fundamentalists. Beyond the unique portfolio addition this project represented, it was a rare opportunity and challenge.

What the Heck is a Yaaway?
The name Yaaway is a playful re-interpretation of Yahweh, originally an ancient Hebrew word for God, or “the one”. By misspelling the word, our client sought to not only distance itself from a traditional religious word, but create a fun, youthful-sounding, nonsense word like Google or Yahoo. The word also wouldn’t have obvious religious connotations. Another benefit was that the word Yaaway could be purchased as a domain name, which was critical.

Early on we uncovered the fact that our client had already invested significantly in the development of the technology behind the online platform, which was being beta-tested online. Yet after more than a year of work on the project, the company had not engaged in any brand strategy or identity design, and had been using a placeholder logomark which was essentially a knock-off of the YouTube logo—a thoughtless contribution by one of its technology developers. This approach was clearly unsuitable as its identity needed to stand apart not only from other religious-based sites, but from the social media/video sharing world. Said the company’s owner, “I feel like we’ve built a world-class race car without considering the body style or paint job.”

The original Yaaway logo.

Seek and Ye Shall Find
The goal for the Yaaway website was to create a safe, friendly and welcoming experience about the real Jesus, and not about Christianity. The brand and user experience would have to appeal to a global community of spiritually-motivated and non-denominational visitors pursuing truth and knowledge, and all faiths would be welcome. The core of the site content would be stories and video and, although debate would be encouraged, any antagonistic, irrelevant or inappropriate content—such as the promotion of exclusive religious doctrine—would not be welcome.

That said, unlike so many religious websites (and there are many), this site would have virtually no editorial control. The content would be self-organized by the community itself in the spirit of a Wiki, with the founders ‘letting it go’, for the most part. Content that members enjoyed and valued would be promoted by users through a voting system, while content not viewed as harmonious with the spirit of the site would settle to the bottom, down-voted and nixed by the user community.

What Would Jesus Design?
An early research step in our process was what we refer to as a Brand Discovery session, essentially a workshop including a series of exercises and games designed to challenge key stakeholders’ preconceived notions and assumptions. As with many clients over the years, our Yaaway clients arrived in our studio with ideas of what they wanted to accomplish, who their audience was, and what was needed to achieve their goals. Our first job was to challenge that paradigm, and dig deeper into the situation to reveal more than could be expressed in an initial creative briefing. The workshop culminated in identifying Yaaway’s brand essence and aspirations, and the creation of a visioning statement to provide the core direction for the brand design project.

Due to our client’s own moderate views on Jesus, we explored the extreme right-wing, church-driven fundamentalist websites, and determined how Yaaway was not that. In fact, one of the more interesting things that emerged during this research phase was that it was far easier to determine what Yaaway was not, which was one of the best ways of determining what it was. This was especially relevant to the project as the identity of the Yaaway community would be largely determined by the users themselves. Plus, this process of discovery made a huge difference to our own acceptance of the client and the project.

Personal biases began creeping into our team’s psyche, and as communication designers, it’s critical that we’re able to set aside our own preconceived notions and focus on the goals, needs and audience at the core of the problem before us. However, the topic of Jesus Christ was a difficult one to remain unbiased about, regardless of faith or perspective. The tactic we settled upon was relative to a round-table discussion; one where any issue or query could be aired without judgment, and then settled before approaching the next. After confronting and discussing our biases, we let our process reveal what our assumptions clouded and the identity began to take shape.

What Does Your Soul Look Like?
As far as branding and identity challenges go, this project had many. In creating the identity, we had to dive deep down into what the site could become well into the future. This invariably led to some interesting and important developments when designing the website itself.

Beside the fact that the intended audience was a vast multicultural group made up of various ages, educations and faiths, the client insisted that we avoid direct references to the image of Christ, as well as classic icons of Christianity such as a crucifix, lamb, fish, crown of thorns, etc. The logo and website interface had to look ‘Web 2.0′ while standing out against sites like YouTube, Facebook, DailyMotion, etc., and it most certainly had to up-stage related competitors such as GodTube, JesusClips, and GospelTube. Further, the site had already gone live as a beta with placeholder graphics and an interface that hadn’t fully considered the user experience. We had our work cut out for us.

We began by highlighting key words, targeting various graphic elements and iconography, in order to grasp particular themes and ideas. We then cross-referenced the visual language of spirituality (both subtle and blatant), with the vast online social networking meme, seeking inspiration for ways to communicate the concept of non-denominational spiritual dialogue, while avoiding cliché graphics.

A sample of some of our concept sketches during the design process.

As community, sharing, connections, and exchange of ideas became central themes, we sketched and explored visual language that included speech balloons and quotation marks as connectors, links, overlapping elements, clusters and video screens. An epiphany came when the speech balloons were arranged to reveal a cross in the negative space—a fortunate point of view as the client didn’t want Yaaway to have any obvious religious or denominational overtones.

Another moment of insight came upon reviewing many different styles of quote marks. Arranged in an organic cluster at varied sizes, they suggest abstracted talking heads coming together in their shared dialogue. With some adjustments, that central point of focus became the ‘invisible’ cross discovered earlier.

Custom typography to complement the rounded forms of icon was developed along with a colour system flexible for both print and web environments. This vibrant palette suggests a journey from cold to hot, as from discovery to acceptance, as the ascending quotes reach upwards to a more spiritual focus. Four graphic elements not only provided the minimum for a sense of community, but four elements also serve to represent the four books of the New Testament and the four disciples who wrote their chronicles of Jesus’ life.

The final logomark, fully realized and addressing the brief, client requirements and target audience.

As wtih all identity design projects, we ran the final top three logos through a theoretical strainer. Is it readable? Is it relevant? Does the typography resonate with the brand? Elements right down to subtle moods changes affected by colour were scrutinized. The editing process is always one of love and hate; but it’s what takes a logo from good to outstanding.

Of couse, final delivery of the brand design included many elements beyond the logo. These included a comprehensive online brand usage guide, complete stationery package, collateral and promotional materials, signage, and the critical interface design for the website.

Some of the applications of the new Yaaway identity and web interface:

On the 70th day, We Rested
Yaaway was a challenging project; one that our team will not soon forget. We are proud that our belief in creative strategy helped us overcome what at first seemed a worrisome project with a challenging brief. This case study will serve as a litmus test and benchmark for future brand identity projects, proving that even when faced with extreme difficulty, our individual talents, combined with our collective faith in the design process, will guide us to effective solutions. We no longer pause before showing off the project, often catching new clients off guard by saying “Can we tell you about Jesus?”

But Was the Project a Success?
The client was ecstatic with the brand platform and, after several months, re-launched its website, promoting it publicly. The site began to expand daily, with a growing collective of spiritually curious users signing up, engaging in dialogue and up-loading videos. The identity even won industry recognition such as a prestigious Communication Arts Award in the 2009 Design Annual.

Then, trouble. It was found that the primary users on the site were Christian—no surprise for us, but a disappointment for the client. Although we were told the site was making good progress, the client suddenly announced that further development of the project was being halted and the core team disbanded. The owner felt compelled to change direction and discontinued his funding. With his original unusual business model lacking a revenue stream, it was no surprise that he ultimately decided to commercially market the technology platform to groups and associations looking to build their own media-based online social networks.

Recently the Yaaway.com website itself went offline, surely a disappointment for those who worked so hard on it for two years. But, maybe one day, it will rise from the dead.

Click here to view a brief case study in our portfolio or click here to download the longer case study overview as a PDF.

Our very own Matt SamyciaWood was featured in a recent issue of Business in Vancouver with his article A Home Business is Still a Business. Addressing some of the more common mistakes with branding a business, Matt shares insights into how those very same lessons can guide a home-based business to consistent messaging and success.

Being involved in the development of District was a great experience.

Working closely with our clients Amacon and Mac Marketing I truly feel that we have all contributed to the South Main district by creating not just a great building but also a brand and lifestyle and an expectation for the type of people who will soon belong to the local community.

The response to District has been very positive. Building one sold out in the first three weeks. Building two has just a couple of suites left. In fact, every element of the development not only worked well but exceeded expectations.

The buzz in the media was great! The PR Campaign that Mac Marketing created with Rock 101 was a huge success. They gave away a $350,000 Condo, Harley-Davidson, home entertainment system, BBQ and iMac—apparently the biggest giveaway contest in the history of Western Canadian Radio history. It drew a lot of traffic to the development and presentation center.

The design that Industrial Brand created was very distinctive. Susan M Boyce wrote in the New Home Buyers Guide article, the following “Located in Vancouver’s South Main neighbourhood, even District’s brochure stands out from the rest… honest, I’m not kidding. It has attitude, and how often can you say that about a brochure?” Download the whole article.

I am looking forward to walking by the buildings when completed and observing the new residents, seeing the intended vision for the neighborhood realized.

A few months ago, Mac Donald’s launched a new TV campaign in France ‘come as you are’. The campaign itself, created by EuroRSCG, is pretty nice but what really caught my attention was the logo: it has turned green!! Just like that, without a warning or at least a press release. French restaurants will shortly be painted in green too.
MacDonald’s and France always had a strong love/hate relationship. Synonymous of obesity, bad health, bad working conditions, the fast-food giant struggled to seduce consumers in a country that takes food seriously: it has to be both slowly made and slowly enjoyed. We made up the words ‘MalBouffe’ or ‘bad grub’ to describe their so-called food and ‘MacJob’ to describe a low-paid, unrewarding, rubbish job. One restaurant in Paris was on strike for a year, another one was dismantled by farmers and anti-globalization activists, and so on.
But today, you can get a BigMac on a 6 cereals traditional French bun, and a ‘green’ restaurant opened in Paris a year ago. Following this example a new pilot ‘green’ McDonald’s is scheduled to open its doors on July 14 in North Carolina, built with sustainable materials and integrating eco-friendly technology as well as electric vehicle charging parking spots.
It seems to be a very successful strategy: surprisingly France is now their world’s fastest growing market.
So a green logo to convince everybody that you are now sustainable and healthy? that’s a bit cliché design-wise. But hey, this is McDonald’s… That’s good news if they are moving in the right direction.