This is a post I put up on my face­book feed to gen­er­ate con­ver­sa­tion, but it decid­edly flomped. So I fig­ured I’d put it here and see what kind of con­ver­sa­tion we could drum up. Go!

There are 3 big things that design­ers do for com­pa­nies, brand, main­tain and re-brand. Nearly every­thing we can do for them stems from those 3, and 2 of them are very sim­i­lar, but HOW sim­i­lar? Brand­ing is usu­ally start­ing from scratch, from a new com­pany who is just try­ing to pave their way in the world. Re-branding how­ever is once the com­pany decides it’s image is falling behind in the world, they call us to help them rein­vent them­selves. A cor­po­rate midlife cri­sis if you will. Many com­pa­nies lately have gone about this ven­ture, some even to a fault and end up revert­ing back to pre­vi­ous designs (the Trop­i­cana or Gap fias­cos for instance), and some that SHOULD revert back to pre­vi­ous brands and don’t(Pepsi??). Many com­pa­nies seem to just want to get an edge over the com­pe­ti­tion, some do it in response to other com­pa­nies in their field who re-branded recently, oth­ers, the smart ones, re-brand when it is truly nec­es­sary to rein­vent themselves.

• When do YOU think it’s appro­pri­ate to change a brand of a com­pany, or even of yourself?
• Do you do it to make a new impact on exist­ing cus­tomers or get new cus­tomers, or to gen­er­ate more rev­enue or to obtain more critics?
• What should the focus be and how as design­ers can we talk our clients through their decision?

12^th 5 Minute InTRU­views, Today I talk to Minna Kim Mazza of Blue Agate. Come along for the ride get­ting a bit into this momma designer’s head!

Read More »