What is identity and what are its goals? What is identity: what is included, stages of development and examples How does identity differ from corporate identity

Question: What is identity and what are its goals? Where should you start creating it, and what details should you pay attention to during the work process?

Designer and identity specialist Alexandra Metlitskaya answers:

If we talk about the very meaning of the word “identity”, it comes from the English “identity”, meaning identity. This makes the word more understandable. In the case of design, we mean corporate identity - visual techniques that distinguish one company from another.

For example, you walk into a fast food restaurant and instantly realize that this is McDonald’s and not Burger King, even the music playing in the background in the cafe works to create a certain image, and you can also easily distinguish one bank from another. However, with the increase in competition and advertising, which have now oversaturated the market, the identity has acquired new functions - to entice, sell and remind. Let's say a buyer, entering a store, seeing identical products of the same price, but of different brands, will probably buy something familiar. This is the purpose of identity - to consolidate at the level of reflexes in a person the connection of visual, auditory or even tactile images with a certain brand. For example, we see an egg and the color red next to it, we remember MTS. But, of course, we should not forget that the most important aspect of a successful identity is its attractiveness in one sense or another.

Creating an identity begins with the work of not only the designer, but also marketers who solve the task together. When developing a logo, the designer immediately thinks about how it can be used on various media, how it can be transformed, how it will be recognized and attract the client. Due to the abundance of visual information, the brain sifts it out like garbage, so it is important to come up with an idea and its implementation that captures the attention of a potential client, at least for a few seconds. These first seconds are very important: before we have time to read all the information, we see spots and images forming associations. If these associations are correct, the client is yours. Everything happens in close collaboration with marketers, techniques and concepts go through stages of testing and surveys. After this, a brand book and guidebook are created - a kind of framework that cannot be exceeded in the further development of advertising.

Most firms find it difficult to compete with giant corporations that can afford to invest huge amounts of money in the development of visual identity. Usually, for such companies, it is enough to develop a corporate style and small recommendations for its use in advertising. Everything happens exactly as when developing an identity for large companies, just on a smaller scale and with fewer people.

First, collecting information, analyzing competitors, identifying target audience, as well as communication with the company’s management, during which details and nuances are clarified. Each design is based on an idea, even if it’s just 3 stripes, they have a certain function, rigor, conciseness, straightforwardness, that is, they support the brand image. There may be several ideas, there may be ideas within an idea, but the main thing here is not to overdo it: there should not be too much semantic load, there must be one main chord - these are the laws of harmony that apply to everything.

When developing a corporate style, the designer must take into account the specifics of the company and how it positions itself and what impression it wants to make. Assess on what media it will be more common and how it is more profitable to represent the company. A good plus there will be some unusual solution or non-standard branded media, this will immediately attract attention. But if the specifics of the company are such that there is no place for creativity, the style should be visually pleasing, strong, and solid. It's like a good suit that is made to order. Sometimes it’s worth listening to a tailor, who often knows better what suits you.

Of course, there are certain rules for creating a good identity, but they are good for beginners. After fixing these techniques and rules on a subconscious level, it is time to break them, experiment and create new trends.

Well, in the end, to make it clearer, I would like to give a few examples of visual identification in advertising of famous brands.

Today it is so fashionable to call ordinary things with foreign words. For example, one often hears “the establishment.” And the person thinks, wonders what kind of miracle this is. But in fact, this is an ordinary “creation”, “establishment”. Or a statement such as “respect from me” is translated as “respect.” And there are many, many more such Anglicisms. But there is another one that is quite difficult to understand. This is the term "identity". And try to figure out what kind of set of letters it is and what it is connected with. But it turns out that everything is simpler than that: identity is a corporate or corporate system of corporate identification. All these concepts are absolutely identical. And in the practice of foreign colleagues this is called ID and corporate ID, where ID is an abbreviation for English word identity - identification. This is where, in fact, the innovative word “identity” originates.

This is also a popular service that is in great demand in the modern market for innovative services. Website development in Moscow is expensive, but for the company it is no less. Often these two “products” are purchased together from the same performers. And you can contact such companies as Playdesign, Alexfill, Artemy Lebedev Studio, Silversite and so on. And it is not at all necessary to be tied to your own place of residence: there are many good employees on the Internet.

Detailed description of the meaning of the word

Let us now take a closer look at this interesting concept. So, identity is a group of special techniques that are used in technical and artistic design. They make it possible to create original advertising material that will attract people around you.

To put it simply, identity is the face of any business, its visual basis. It consists of a corporate identity and logo. To make it a little clearer, remember what first comes to mind when we mention the Mercedes corporation? Naturally, a star that has three rays. What is the name of the Apple company associated with? Of course, with an apple. This will be the identity we are talking about.

Many ordinary people will say that when all a company’s documentation, its advertising and souvenir products and employee uniforms are made in the same color scheme, with identical graphic elements characteristic of this company, then this is not a very interesting sight. But this can be rebutted, because such an identity promises the company considerable benefits in the market it occupies.

If a potential client sees that the corporation’s advertising materials, its documentation, office names and signs, and staff badges are created in the same style, then he will understand that he is dealing with a reputable organization where a close-knit and professional team works. In addition, this approach will make the company and its promotions more recognizable. Therefore, identity is an improvement in image and strengthening of status trademark or firms on the market.

Components of identity

The corporate identity may also consist of additional fragments: souvenirs, all forms of outdoor and online advertising, folders, packages. This may include POS materials, motto (slogan), multimedia presentation, website and booklet, outdoor advertising, price list.

The main and primary task of identity

The main goal of the identity is to talk about a specific business concisely, clearly and in such a way that it is firmly entrenched in memory. To do this, you need not just a fashionable style and a beautiful logo, but it is necessary that the corporate identity emphasizes the company in the chain of competitors. It should make the corporation extraordinary and intriguing for partners and clients. Relevance is a rare but simple quality that describes a good identity. The logo must tell about this company, and not about any other.

Corporate identity rules

Corporate identity will not have the right to exist if those who deal with it do not adhere to the basic rules of its creation. So, the first rule says that when creating the image of a corporation, one should start from imagery. If you are trying to promote an automaker, then do not use an image of a locomotive to advertise it. The image must support the idea of ​​this business. Only in this case will it be easy and will be remembered for a long time.

Rule number two is that there is no need to give the main role to the logo. Today, many companies can exist without it, or the company name itself can act as a logo. Almost no one knows the Beeline logo, but it exists. But the corporate shades - yellow and black stripes - are known to every person. Everyone knows that they symbolize the mobile operator.

A few more rules

Another important point: It's best not to overdo it with creativity. Thanks to visual identification, the identity must answer two questions: “What kind of company is this?” and “Why does the client need it?” Hence the conclusion is drawn that it is obliged to fully support the ideology of the corporation. And the ideology itself implies management principles, corporate traditions and categories of potential clients.

And the last rule is socialization, that is, ideas about how the corporate identity will work in the media.

Identity is a necessary thing

So, we figured out what a corporate style (identity) is. But is it so important for the company? Of course, this is a guarantee of success for any business project. Every successful company strictly monitors the quality of its corporate identity. It improves its perfection and relevance. It often happens that in order to bring a corporation out of a crisis, it is necessary to change its identity. Also, a change in style is resorted to when a company needs to reach new market or clarify your activities.

Identity represents the banner under which the business of a particular entrepreneur is carried out. It is incredibly important to have a corporate identity and a wonderful logo, because these are the criteria by which people are met and, more often, they are seen off by them.

Corporate identity is expressed in the attributes of corporate style (English: Corporate style). Same as brand identity, but in relation to a corporate brand. A corporate brand is associated with the company name (and/or its symbol) and can be used for the company's products. Often it is the basis or addition to a family brand (English Family Brand) and individual brand (English Individual Brand); In the Asian model of brand management, the corporate brand plays a central role: most subsidiaries of products and services have one brand, which may change, but only slightly. T.N. monolithic brand (eng. Monolithic brand) or brand house (eng. Branded House). In this case, advertising focuses not on product brands, but on the corporate brand: the main advantage is focusing activities on the unity of the company and common corporate values, which in turn allows you to quickly build a global business structure, but is associated with various risks and difficulties during diversification production. In the Western model of brand management, the emphasis is on brands owned by the company, and the corporate brand is assigned a supporting role in the event of the success of products/product categories under independent brands (English House of Brand). Modern model brand management uses a combined approach that takes advantage of Asian and Western models. There is also the concept of corporate branding.

Corporate design, along with corporate philosophy, corporate culture and corporate behavior, is one of the elements of corporate identity.

Story

The concept of corporate identity appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, when the number of companies operating in one area increased critically, and the problem of their recognition became urgent.

Corporate style

An example from a book of corporate style developed for an industrial brand in the machine tool industry. Key elements of the brand’s visual identity: “airy” hexagon, corporate colors, individual font, the ability to build a monolithic brand architecture.

Corporate or “corporate” style is often understood as a set of verbal and visual constants that ensure the unity of perception of goods, services, information emanating from a company or brand to the consumer. Corporate identity is a brand trademark that is broadcast across all company positioning channels:

• In presentation and image products: forms, business cards, souvenirs, etc.;
• The logo is also present in the ATL sphere: in the slogan, outdoor advertising, TV advertising, etc.;
• The trademark is actively used in promotions, promotional campaigns, promotional materials distributed by promoters, it becomes part of the design of store shelves, shelf talkers and stoppers;
• The logo also plays a huge role in the creation of websites, being not only part of the website, but also one of the key elements of online advertising, banners, etc. Thus, the use of branded attributes on websites is already self-sufficient advertising.

The corporate style is developed based on the logo and trademark. First, a general analysis of companies similar to the one that ordered the logo or brand name is carried out. Then the distinctive features of this company are identified. After this, the idea of ​​a “semantic image” is formed, which will subsequently become fundamental in the corporate style of this company. This image includes not only graphic elements, but also sales psychology (for example, aggressive marketing) and the geographical location of the company, and sociological images of the social environment. Then the logo is developed. At the beginning of development, the main elements are determined: style-forming idea, color scheme, fonts. Standards and recommendations are being developed for applying corporate symbols to style media. The carrier of the style can be anything: internal documentation, outdoor advertising, website, office building. After completing the work on developing a style, a guide for its use is drawn up. The manual is called differently: brand book, guideline, design standards. Although it is incorrect to use the name “brand book” in this case, since the document gives recommendations for visualizing the brands of both the company and the goods and services of the same company (and they may differ), see brand architecture (English: Brand Architecture).

Prohibitions found in the Corporate Style Guide

• Do not resize the sign and logo individually.
• Do not change the distance between fragments of the brand block.
• Do not use outline tracing.
• Do not change corporate colors.
• Do not place a brand block on a complex texture.
• Do not blur the sign and logo.
• Do not use darkening.
• Do not fill with texture.

The activity of developing and creating a recognizable image of a company, goods or services is inextricably linked with such a concept as brand identity. It is similar to the definition of branding, but has a number of distinctive features, taking into account which it is important to clearly interpret the terminology and formulate the setting of goals when carrying out work.

Brand identity, according to the generally accepted concept, is a complete set of graphic and other elements that determine the complete visual appearance and emotional and semantic perception of a specific (identifiable and individualized) object (firm, corporation, product or service).

A number of well-known authors, in particular Alina Wheeler (a writer who has published a large number of books on branding), interpret the concept of identity as something material that appeals to the feelings of the consumer, that is, allowing the construction of verbal and nonverbal communication with the target audience.

In other words, a brand identity is a set of graphic, acoustic, tactile and other elements united by one idea and carrying a common semantic message. In simple layman's language, this is what the consumer can see, hold, listen to, touch, etc.

The brand identity includes the following elements:

1. A logo is the basis for building an identity, the main graphic symbol of brand identification.
2. Corporate style is a developed and clearly formulated visual shell of a brand (company, service, product), created around a logo and combining all graphic elements into a single recognizable image through a common color scheme, design solutions, etc. A single corporate style should be manifested in each identity carrier. The number and nature of these media depend on the individual needs of the brand. These may include:

• business documentation, stationery (forms, envelopes, boxes, folders, etc.);
• product, packaging (product and container design - boxes, bags, containers, etc.);
• image printing (business cards, catalogues, flyers, brochures, etc.);
• marketing products (books, CD presentations, websites, etc.);
• environmental design (interior and exterior design of the company, points of sale);
• branded clothing for staff;
• souvenirs (promotional souvenirs, business and VIP gifts);
• other visual components.

The function of a brand identity is to aggregate individual elements into a single integral system, each component of which will carry a common semantic message, is within a certain visual style and adheres to one model for building communications.

The main objectives of the brand identity:

1. To form and consolidate a recognizable image of the company (brand) in the eyes of the target audience, make it understandable to the consumer and easily identifiable.
2. To highlight the brand from the mass of competitors, to attract attention to it.

A recognizable and understandable brand is more in demand both from direct consumers and from the position of investors, which, together, ensures successful commercial and public activities.