Brand Core · Brand Identity · Module
Visual system
Logo, colour, typography, imagery and layout — specified precisely enough to be reproduced by someone who has never spoken to anyone about it.
The idea
How it works
Recognition attaches to specific elements used consistently rather than to overall design quality. A distinctive colour or shape used for a decade outperforms a better system that changes, which makes stability a design decision rather than a lack of ambition.
The system is only as good as its worst reproduction. It will be applied by suppliers, partners and people in a hurry, which means the specification has to work without interpretation.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Identify what is actually distinctive
Which elements do people recognise without the name? Those are the assets; the rest is styling.
- 02
Specify colour in values, not in names
A colour described as “our blue” is three different blues within a year.
- 03
Write the rules for the hard cases
Small sizes, dark backgrounds, third-party templates. The easy cases were never the problem.
- 04
Change slowly and rarely
Before a redesign, be able to say what the current system has failed to achieve. Boredom inside is not a reason.
One level in
The components of visual system
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
The specifications
Colour, type, spacing and construction, in values that can be reproduced exactly.
Learn
Specify colour as a value, never as a name. “Our blue” becomes three different blues within a year.
The other modules in brand identity
Brand personality
The traits the brand behaves as if it had — chosen deliberately, with things it is explicitly not, because that is what governs the judgement calls no guideline covers.
LearnVerbal system
Name, tone of voice, vocabulary and how things are named beneath the brand — the half of identity that is used most and documented least.
LearnConsistency
How the system is actually held: where the assets live, who can approve a departure, and how often real output is checked against the intent.
Learn