James Golding, Author at Zap Creative Ltd

Why an identity is more than just a logo

James Golding — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 21:10:37 +0000

Why an identity is more than just a logo

By Matthew Ockelford

We’re sometimes asked if we can produce just a logo. We can of course, but without brand and a powerful visual identity working alongside it, it’s unlikely to get the desired results.

First things first, it’s important to understand what a logo is exactly. It’s a unique identifying mark, it’s your brand’s signature, that’s it.

So if we look at it through this lens, would you do business with someone based solely on the quality of their signature? Probably not. Let’s take it a step further, what if the person dressed or acted in a way that wasn’t up to the standard you would expect? We’d wager almost certainly not. So back into branding terms, would you trust the professionalism of a doctor who had a great logo, however used Comic Sans as their typeface? Almost definitely not.

This is where the importance of building a brand identity rather than a logo becomes evident. Without one, establishing a brand that is loved and trusted is made a lot harder.

So what is a brand? A brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what the consumer says it is. It’s someone’s gut feeling about your product, service, or organization. You can’t tell people how to feel about your brand, that’s up to them. You can however help influence their opinion, and this is done through the consistency of your brand image.
A successful brand identity tailors all of your outwards facing communications to your target audience. That means your logo, typography, imagery and even the way you communicate is geared towards portraying your company in the best possible and most consistent way time and time again. This in turn helps grow trust in your brand and give you the best chance possible of standing out in the crowd for all the right ways.

As a studio we believe in crafting brands that are rich in strategic thinking and purpose. Our aim is to give you everything you need to deliver a consistent, unique, and comprehensive brand experience (including a beautiful logo). This will allow you to always present the best possible image of yourself, help you reach your audience, gain their trust, and earn their loyalty.

The post Why an identity is more than just a logo appeared first on Zap Creative Ltd.

Logo redesigns: Why are brands becoming more minimalist?

James Golding — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 22:35:24 +0000

Logo redesigns: Why are brands becoming more minimalist?

By Georgia Robertson

A lot of brands recently have been actioning logo redesigns and branding and are adopting a much more minimalist approach. This seems to be a common trend within the graphic design industry in recent times.

Traditionally, what’s thought of as a ‘good’ logo, is one with detail and design embellishment. Big companies previously would pay big money to make sure that their logos were crafted with detail and intricacy, and this is what was considered ‘strong’. Brands have now however started to deviate from this approach.

A brief history

The history of brands date way back to ancient family crests, and hieroglyphs. Early logos were developed for shops as signage to represent what they did. More modern logos were developed in the early 1900s, in the industrial era, alongside mass printing.

1956 saw a huge turn around in the development of logos, with Paul Rand’s IBM logo design at the forefront. This started the wave of businesses recognising logos for what they could be: an impactful symbol to represent exactly what the company stands for to brand a business.

Memorability

It’s no secret that logos need to be recognisable and eye-catching. But how can brands achieve memorability? Arguably, one of the most important aspects of any brand is a strong colour palette. The colours should be used consistently across all mediums, whether it’s across print collateral or digital. Colour use should not be too complicated, and you should try not to use too many colours. Logos should be simple enough for a consumer to easily digest and the most successful logos have a limited colour palette.

An example of a brand that has recently stripped back their logo to be much more simplistic is Pepsi. This is a brand that has been around since the late 1800’s and has been through a lot of different logo variations. The last logo is arguably the most recognisable, despite being the simplest.

A new design for a new era

Is technology really taking over the world? Well, it’s certainly taking over the consumer industry. As technology has been advancing over the last decade, many things are becoming more digitized. Brands are embracing it and putting everything on the web. Nearly every brand these days has at least a website, and most use social media.

In the pre-digital era, most avenues that brands explored to market themselves involved traditional methods, like TV adverts and billboards. Today, everything is available at the click of a button. So, it’s important for brands to embrace social media and the new technological era. However, there are so many different devices out there, with different ratios and dimensions. So, responsiveness is a key consideration.

A lot of content can be available to a consumer through technology, and digital platforms can have a lot of content to digest on its interfaces. Having an over-complicated logo could potentially overwhelm the consumer. Before, brands would not have this issue as there were limited places that the average consumer would be able to engage with brand content. Social media and the digital age has reversed this, with users able to visit a website or social media platform in a matter of seconds. Stripping a logo back can let the user focus on the content. And chances are, if the average consumer is on your website, they probably aren’t much attention to the amount of detail in your logo anyway!

Consumer behaviour

Believe it or not, psychology can play a role in how successful a brand is. All colours, shapes and styles have connotations that people associate with different things. For example, red can have connotations with anger or fire or passion, while blue can have connotations of calmness or peace. The colours and shapes a brand uses plays a part in how its consumers view it and what they associate it with. Using too many colours and adding too much detail, as many brands used to do primarily before the digital era, can confuse consumers.

Conclusion

Are these logo redesigns just a trend that is bound to change with time, just as fashion trends change? Not if it is done well. The idea of a great logo is to be timeless and easily interpretable. Many previous logos didn’t meet this goal, and used 3D techniques, as well as over-detailing. These techniques made the logos hard to print and could verge on being forgettable as they’re not as striking and memorable.

Graphic designer, Sagi Haviv, has designed some of the most iconic logos around, such as National Geographic, PBS, and Mobil. He claims that a logo should be three things to be successful: appropriate, distinctive and memorable and simple. Logos need to be able to be viewed across multiple different mediums and platforms, and needs to be adaptable to this.

The post Logo redesigns: Why are brands becoming more minimalist? appeared first on Zap Creative Ltd.

Type animation in media

James Golding — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 08:25:41 +0000

Type animation in media

By Cameron Tubb

As of arguably the last decade “branding” whether that be a corporate, retail, food, beverage all the way to movies and personal branding has been more important than ever in a world saturated with brands on every corner you turn and every swipe of the finger.

Its essential in standing out and marketing yourself successfully. One of the many facets of branding is its flexibility across an array of mediums. A small part of this is Animated typography, this isn’t anything new but it’s !BIGGER! than ever and where there is a digital screen there is animation. How do you grab attention and make your brand and message stand out on a page? It’s simple, you animate it.

Only designers might look at animated typography and pay any attention to its purpose or the effect it has on us as voyeurs. But even the blissfully unaware all secretly love animated typography (and typography in general). Just take Stranger Things for example. The TV show would not be nearly as cool if it wasn’t for that iconic opening scene that shows the title slowly being built letter by letter as the camera slowly pans out with a throbbing synths to back it up. It’s beautifully simple and became instantly recognisable globally with it now being printed on every conceivable bit of merchandise available. We have been programmed over the many years of advertisement from the clever brains in agencies to associate different typography to different feelings and emotions. Animating this typography with subtle effects can add a whole new dimension to the brand.

Over the years, title sequences for movies/TV shows have tried to create unique titles which themselves are pieces of art and a glimpse into what the TV or movie has to offer. Not all of these of course hero typography but there are some stand out pieces that use animated typography to really enhance your experience. To name a few, Stranger Things, Dexter, Enter the Void (cool visual and audio), Catch Me If You Can, Alien, Killing Eve, Monsters Inc, Star Wars, and Avengers. These all use their typography as either a way to express the meaning of the movie/show or to be vessels to hold content.

One of my favourites is “Enter the Void”. It instantly hits you and gives you a pretty good idea what the tone of the movie is, and within itself is a feast for the eyes and ears. Skip to 1:08 for the best bit.

But let’s take a step back in time, not too long ago, but before Adobe After Effects and where the magical world of practical effects was a cinematographer’s best friend. I was watching James Bond from Russia with Love and as all James Bond movies, they have the amazing title sequences 10/15 minutes into the movie. But this one really struck me, put aside the lure and crude out of date shots of half-naked women of the 60’s and focus on the genius of how they used projectors on the models to showcase the names of the cast members.

Today we could use warp tools to create this effect but it’s so simple yet extremely cool. Even though this isn’t animation, it’s an early example of manipulating typography to emote a feeling and not just to be informative but also to be a piece of the art in itself, evoking feelings and embodying an identity for the movie and the time period it was set. Little fact, the first ever use of kinetic type is considered to be Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest. Opening title designed by the legendary graphic designer Saul Bass. Bass’s inspiration can still be seen today, maybe most notably in the Monster Inc title sequence.

Now let’s come back to modern day and away from the movies and into branding. As of the last decade or so, simple type animation has been on the rise within the brand landscape, with formats such as Instagram and TikTok boosting video/animated posts over static posts via their algorithm giving even more reasons for brands to push animated advertisements. This can be seen across many brands such as Apple, Coca Cola, Burger King, McDonalds, Size, Nike, and brands Zap Creative work with such as Mockingbird and Up & Go. Animation skills, simple or complex, are now sought-after skills when on the lookout for new talent.

Just adding that element of animation allows your content to stand out. Most retail store fronts now have digital screen, most highstreets have digital advertisement boards and even in the big cities, whole walls and city centres are covered with digital screens and fighting for your attention.

So, in conclusion whether you have noticed it or not, animation has become easily accessible and a vital part of the advertisement landscape and something you should be taking full advantage of.

The post Type animation in media appeared first on Zap Creative Ltd.