I'm currently taking a brand and applying it across a range of touch points.
It's making me think about how a brand manifests, behaves and evolves as it's applied to real things in real life - that essentially this becomes an extension of the creative process.
I find there are three things that happen for me as a brand designer...
One - Validation
It's validating seeing a brand you have created manifest across a range of communications. You feel more and more confident as it becomes stronger and more established as a collective entity - flexing its personality, identity and message.
Two - Challenge
There's the odd occasion, where by the nature of a touch point presents a challenge - something doesn't quite work. Things have to be tweaked or flexed and then worked back in across the other touch points to ensure consistency across the piste.
Three - Discovery
Similar to finding challenges, new ideas can present themselves too. This is an exciting thing but sometimes a little disappointing, as you may stumble upon a fantastic idea that would be too disruptive to apply as it could unseat or upstage the foundations of the brand.
Often though, these new ideas offer another layer of evolution to work with in the future, a pointer to a direction in which the brand could develop. Whether it be a concept for a campaign or a graphical device that aids a specific proposition, it's great to know they are in your back pocket for the future.
I wonder though how many great ideas are lost when a creative agency creates a brand, then leaves the client to work it through their communications.
